Darby Overseas Investments, Ltd. ("Darby"), the private equity arm
of Franklin Templeton Investments, announced that Sean Glodek, Senior
Vice President, has joined the firm in its Warsaw office. Mr. Glodek
will source and execute investment opportunities for the Darby
Converging Europe Mezzanine Fund (DCEMF), which has total capital
commitments of EUR EUR 248 million (US$ 391 million).
Mr. Glodek joins Darby from Lehman Brothers where he was a Vice
President in the firm´s global M&A group. Previously he held positions
at Deutsche Bank Securities, Barclays Capital, Ameriquest Capital,
Clayton Dubilier & Rice and Goldman Sachs. Mr. Glodek, who is fluent
in German and Polish, received a BA degree from Stanford University
with honors in Economics and an MBA degree from The Wharton School at
the University of Pennsylvania.
Robert D. Graffam, Darby´s Senior Managing Director - Europe,
commented: "Sean´s broad experience in corporate finance as well as
principal investing will be very valuable to the Darby Europe team as
we accelerate the pace of investment by DCEMF, particularly in Poland
where we have recently made two investments." Thus far DCEMF has
invested EUR 109.5 million of its committed capital in nine companies;
the most recent transactions were in Poland, specifically (i) an
investment of EUR EUR 16.40 million in Zaklady Tluszczowe Bodaczow
("ZTB"), the fifth largest producer of vegetable oils and edible fats
in Poland, and (ii) a EUR 7.5 million investment in CTL Logistics, the
largest privately held railroad operator in Poland.
Darby has been a pioneer in providing mezzanine products - a
hybrid of both debt and equity - to emerging market regions, including
Latin America, Asia, and more recently to Central and Eastern Europe.
DCEMF´s other investments include DDSG Cargo Group, a leading river
transportation company based in Vienna; SIA Rigas Piensaimniekes, a
major dairy products concern in Latvia; Ceske Radiokomunikace, the
dominant broadcast and leading alternative telecommunications services
provider in the Czech Republic; and FiberNet Group, one of the
foremost CEE cable television operators, offering cable television,
broadband, internet, and telephony services with a focus on Hungary,
Bulgaria, and Ukraine.
Darby Overseas Investments, Ltd. was founded in 1994 by The
Honorable Nicholas F. Brady, who served as U.S. Secretary of the
Treasury between 1988 and 1993. In 2003, Darby became a fully owned
subsidiary of Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN), a global investment
management organization operating as Franklin Templeton Investments.
Franklin Templeton Institutional, a unit of Franklin Templeton
Investments, provides global and domestic investment management
solutions managed by the Franklin Global Advisers, Templeton, Franklin
Templeton Fixed Income, Franklin Templeton Real Estate Advisors, Darby
and Mutual Series investment management teams. The San Mateo,
California-based company has 60 years of investment experience and
over US$600 billion in assets under management as of February 29,
2008.
