Central and Eastern Europe-focused Arx Equity Partners has raised €102 million for its third fund, which is ‘on schedule to reach its €125 million target’.

Central and Eastern Europe-focused Arx Equity Partners has raised €102 million (£89 million) for its third fund, which is ‘on schedule to reach its €125 million target’.

The fund, which focuses on succession-driven buy-outs in the region’s lower mid-market, is the largest so far raised by Arx, which under its former name DBG Eastern Europe raised €46 million and €67 million for its first and second funds respectively.

Brian Wardrop, co-managing partner of Arx Equity, says, ‘Even though Arx III is larger than our previous funds, we remain firmly focused on our target investment size and market, namely established small to mid-sized businesses across Central and Eastern Europe.’

The fund has already made two investments: Polish pet product company Kakadu and Czech healthcare business Lexum.

Arx’s other co-managing partner Jacek Korpala comments, ‘Acquisition finance is still available in certain countries [in the region] for lower mid-market deals, and while there are few alternative sources of exit liquidity, there are also a large number of business owners who have over-extended into non-core ventures.’

Investments made by the fund will range between €3 million and €15 million, with deal enterprise values of between €10 million and €50 million.