VENTURE CAPITAL AND PRIVATE EQUITY INVESTMENTS IN HUNGARY – CHARACTERISTICS AND PROSPECTS

Abstract

Hungary, just like the other countries in the Central-Eastern-European (CEE) region passed through a specific transition process during the late 1980s and the early 1990s when it started to lay down the basics of a market economy. Near at the time of the transmission, venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) appeared as an alternative vehicle of corporate financing. As an industry, the VC and PE market built itself a quite well developed status relative to its counterparts in the CEE region. But the industry had to adapt to the country’s peculiar economic, political and capital market conditions and also to its entrepreneurial and business culture, which all determined the frames of the investors’ operating environment. Our paper’s aim is to shed light on those attributes which characterize the Hungarian VC and PE industry and which can also relate to the country’s specific economical-cultural circumstances mentioned above. Nevertheless, the paper deals with the VC and PE market’s future prospects, while stressing some of the key factors which are essential for the industry’s successful development.

Keywords

• venture capital, private equity, characteristics

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