KBC Private Equity NV		[t] +32 (0)2 429 36 45
		Havenlaan 12		[f] +32 (0)2 429 05 25
address		1080 Brussels - Belgium		[e] info@kbcpe.be

History

KBC Private Equity NV, resulting from the merger between KBC Investco NV and Ortelius NV, can trace its roots back more than 60 years.

In fact, Investco NV - the former investment company of the Almanij-Kredietbank Group - was established in 1943 as Kolendelving NV, which had a stake in a lignite mine in Hungary.

In the 1950s, a new type of financial service was introduced by the then Kredietbank president, Fernand Collin: the temporary underwriting of shares and bonds when companies were being founded or were expanding. In 1957, Professor André Vlerick developed the business and came up with the name, Investco. In 1992, the company gained an initial (albeit modest) foothold in the Czech Republic and, in 1997, took over the Limburgse Participatie Maatschappij. In 2001, KBC Bank acquired control of Investco NV and its portfolio and team were merged with those of KBC Invest, the entity in which KBC had grouped its private equity stakes since 1999.

Gevaert NV, which has been operating as an investment company since 1980, invests in listed companies and also provides private equity. Its private equity interests have been transferred to Ortelius NV, a subsidiary company.

Following the merger between Almanij and the KBC Bank and Insurance Holding Company, activities that had previously been carried out in parallel with each other were merged and structures simplified. In this regard, KBC Investco and Ortelius, which managed the majority of Gevaert’s private equity business, joined forces on 29 July 2005 under the name of ‘KBC Private Equity’. As its name clearly implies, KBC Private Equity is the KBC Group’s sole private equity company.