Baker McKenzie Budapest has advised Hungarian entrepreneur Stefan Fritsch on his sale of 61% of the 11 Entertainment Group to the Genesis Private Equity Fund III, a private equity fund advised by Genesis Capital. Kinstellar advised Genesis Capital on the deal.
Genesis Capital provides advisory services to private equity funds offering access to financing for growth and development of small and medium-sized companies in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Austria. Since its foundation in 1999, Genesis Capital has provided consultancy to four private equity funds with a cumulative size exceeding EUR 170 million. The current fund, Genesis Private Equity Fund III (GPEF III), is over EUR 80 million, and has been actively investing since 2015. Investors in GPEF III are mostly local and international institutions and investment firms such as the European Investment Fund (EIF), Ceska Sporitelna (a member of the Erste Group), Amundi Czech Republic, Kooperativa Pojistovna, and Ceska Podnikatelska Pojistovna (both members of the Vienna Insurance Group), and Finnish fund-of-funds firm eQ Private Equity.
According to a Genesis Capital press release, "11 Entertainment Group contains companies providing indoor family entertainment in trampoline parks, indoor playgrounds, and laser tag arenas in Hungary. The founder and owner of the business, Mr. Stefan Fritsch, started the first playground in 2009 as a hobby-business together with his wife Raka Kovacs to entertain his own children, while being a top manager in the automotive industry. This point was an off-take of Mr. Fritsch’s career as entrepreneur.|
That same press release quoted Fritsch as explaining that: "Entrepreneurship was a passion for me since I was a little boy selling comics at the street corner of my home town. As entrepreneurs we have the full freedom to influence the future in a direction we want to have it and by that we can generate the positive flow needed to overcome the immense hurdles and work load on our way to make things happen."
According to the Genesis Capital press release, "since 2009, Stefan and Reka grew the business to five parks accommodating more than 500,000 visitors annually. The business has ambitions to expand further into the neighboring countries to become a Central European family entertainment leader. In preparation for this plan, 11 Entertainment Group was recently strengthened by experienced top managers who also become shareholders of the group. GPEF III and Mr. Fritsch both allocated potential further capital to support the growth plan."
Baker McKenzie's team in Budapest was led by Partner Akos Fehervary and included Associates David Ferenc and Gabor Hajduk.
The Kinstellar team advising Genesis Capital was led by Partner Jan Juroska and included Senior Associate Michal Kniz and Junior Associate Denisa Simanska in the Czech Republic, Partner Adam Hodon, Senior Associate Michal Hrusovsky, and Junior Associate Livia Miklencicova in Slovakia, and Partner Anthony O’Connor and Senior Associate Agnes Zsofia Szabo in Hungary.
