Glossary of Key Terms
V. CVIJANOVIC, MAROVIC, M. & SRUK, B.: FINANCIRANJE MALIH I SREDNJIH PODUZEĆA (BIONZA PRESS, 2008)
Private Equity and Venture Private Equity / Venture Capital Funds: Under Croatian law, they are called open-end venture capital funds with a private offering. Although the funds themselves do not have a legal personality (they are managed by management companies), they are usually distinguished as “players” who manage a considerable amount of capital.
They invest in promising companies with high growth potential in the medium and long term (5 years on average) and with a clearly defined exit strategy. Although under Croatian law there is no distinction between Private Equity and Venture Capital Funds, it should be noted that the Private Equity Fund is a broader term and the Venture Capital Fund is narrower.
Venture Capital generally refers to the financing of early stage companies and the expansion phase, with Private Equity as a broader term covering Venture Capital investment and additional acquisitions. Venture Kapital investing also involves active participation in management often involves changing business strategy, management, restructuring of financing (replacement of equity for debt or vice versa), recapitalization and the like. A typical investment in Croatia at this stage of the investment is over EUR 500 thousand.
The Croatian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (www.cvca.hr) operates in Croatia with the aim of promoting Private Equity and Venture Capital investments. To present the financing of the development of the company by the stages of development:
(i) experimental or seed phase
(ii) start-up phase
(iii) expansion phase
(iv) the recapitalization phase
(v) acquisition phase (buyout, sale of majority shareholding)
Financing enterprise development
Business angels: natural persons who invest considerable sums of money directly into new, promising propulsion companies. In addition to capital, they invest in knowledge and experience and are active in managing the company. The Croatian Business Angels Network CRANE (www.crane.hr) was recently established in Croatia. The amounts of these informal venture capital investments in Croatia range between € 100 and € 500,000.
Business plan: A plan for starting and performing a business activity for potential investors in a project, which contains information on the establishment of the company, its mission, vision and goals, analysis of the industry and the market in which the company will operate, elaboration of a strategy that will apply in order to gain and maintain a comparative advantage in business and a detailed projection of the financial plan.