Why dfe Partners

Dfe is the preferred partner of management teams, institutions and investors because of the skills and focus we bring:

• A single sector focus: This enables us to deliver our expertise, make better-informed and therefore more rapid investment decisions as well as spotting the opportunities others might miss because of the depth of our market knowledge. Our focus on the financial service sector provides a coherent and demonstrable strategy to deliver attractive financial returns through accessing markets with exceptional growth prospects, in an environment that is working towards harmonization with EU standards.
• A regional geographic focus: We are targeted to invest solely in the prospective EU accession countries of Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia Herzegovina, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Kosovo, Romania, and Moldova and the bordering countries of Turkey and the Ukraine.
  Concentration on a single sector and specific geography enables highly efficient, pro-active origination of investment opportunities. The regional approach reduces any pressure to invest or sell out at the wrong time in a cycle in any given single country, as well as to exploit the opportunity to transfer successful business models across borders. The combination of these factors enables the Fund to be more effective with its resources.
• Region on pathway to EU accession: The Region is characterized by a dynamic advanced stage micro and small and medium sized enterprise (MSME) sector that serves as the primary source of employment and income. The current economic situation, with accelerating cross-border trade between enterprises and enhanced moves to integrate these economies within the EU, present a challenging and exciting opportunity to invest in financial institutions with a strong bias towards MSME lending and other underserved markets where such institutions can face severe constraints in accessing equity and risk capital.
• Experience of team and Investment Partners: The Fund will actively advise and support senior management of portfolio companies to facilitate the rapid scale up of operations, consolidation and, in some cases, integration into the formal financial sector. Without access to equity capital, many MSME banks will not be able to scale up their institutions to meet demand and broaden their product offering as economies and the requirements of their customer base expand and develop.
• Active participation and involvement with investee institutions that deliver returns beyond the capital we invest: We aim not only to strengthen the capital base of the institutions which become our partners, but in addition provide access to international credit lines, banking and product expertise, process and systems as well as hands on Board involvement to help shape and determine the future strategic direction of investee institutions.
• Creating attractive transparent and trustworthy institutions aimed at underserved markets combines a bridge between social and commercial returns: This means that, through creating institutions with sufficient scale and quality of operations to become specialised strategic assets, there will be a significant opportunity to, participate in and capitalise on, the escalating and competitive consolidation of the sector by strategic investors.
• Investment expertise and track record of team: Based on the combined depth and breadth of both investment and banking experience represented within dfe and amongst its Investment Partners, it has a unique position and ability to help deliver rapid success to institutions. The exclusive focus on financial services will create cornerstone investments across the region and enable cross-fertilisation and leveraging of resources in a highly efficient manner.