10th Anniversary German Equity Forum Held In Berlin 140 Companies And 350 Investors - Largest Private Equity Forum In Europe

Around 140 companies and 350 investors and financial advisers participated in the German Equity Forum, held on Thursday at the Grand Hyatt Berlin. The Forum is Europe’s leading platform providing equity finance for innovative companies, and jointly organised by KfW and Deutsche Börse twice a year. This year the Forum is hosted by the State of Berlin. Companies use the German Equity Forum to present their business model to investors and advisors, with the goal of finding investors for a new financing round. The success of this model is shown by the German Equity Forum celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, with more than half of the companies using the platform in the past having successfully found new sources of equity finance.

“An efficient market, one that allows sources and demand of capital to be matched, is an essential part of the private equity market. With the German Equity Forum KfW and Deutsche Börse have ensured that the market has remained open, also during occasionally challenging times”, concluded Dr. Peter Fleischer, Member of the Board of KFW Banking Group. “Companies that have participated in the Germany Equity Forum in the past and are still active have created more than 10,000 new much-valued jobs. This demonstrates the economic significance of the Forum for equity capital finance”.

“Over the last 10 years the German Equity Forum has made a decisive contribution to improvements in equity culture: as the leading private equity and venture capital information and networking event and establishing professional standards in Europe”, observed Rainer Riess, Managing Director, Deutsche Börse. “With the Entry Standard, General Standard and Prime Standard Deutsche Börse provides customised capital market access, enabling companies of all sizes and from all sectors to use the exchange as a trading and financing platform”.

The private equity climate in German has considerably improved over the last two years. The German Private Equity Barometer, provided by KfW and the German Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, reached a new high in the closing quarter of 2005. The Spring German Equity Forum traditionally focuses on early stage finance companies. This sector is also experiencing a strong upturn in confidence. This contrasts with remaining issues concerning the availability of small scale equity finance for late stage companies. This is one of the conclusions drawn by a survey of 177 private equity firms, carried out by KfW and Prof. Ann-Kristin Achleitner of the Technische Universität München. This study will be presented at the German Equity Forum.

KfW Mittelstandsbank (KfW SME bank) supports early stage finance through the ERP Participation Programme. This enables young technology orientated companies, to receive up to 3 million Euro, on the condition that an additional financial partner provides an equal stake. “The ERP Participation Programme strengthens our assistance of companies eligible for equity capital finance. We promote companies along with the market, as we see ourselves contributing to market trends.” stated Dr Peter Fleischer. Furthermore, the KfW also participates in High-Tech funds, provided by KfW in cooperation with the German Federal Government and partners from industry. The High-Tech Funds represent 260 m Euro and were launched in 2005.

The German Equity Forum (Internet: www.eigenkapitalforum.com) was first held ten years ago, and held twice a year since in the spring and fall. The first event each year focuses on early stage capital seeking companies, with late stage and listed companies participating in the fall.