The Capital Markets Conference 2025: Igor Čičak on the Growing Contribution of PE Funds to Regional Development

At the Capital Markets 2025 conference, organized by Jutarnji List and Delo and held on October 8, the CEO and managing partner of Provectus Capital Partners (PCP), Igor Čičak, participated in a panel titled “How Can Private Equity Support Strategic Projects of States and Companies?”.

The conference featured speakers Marko Primorac, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of the Republic of Croatia, and Klemen Boštjančić, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Slovenia, as well as numerous high-level representatives of the Slovenian and Croatian financial industries.

“The world’s most developed countries have higher shares of private equity (PE) funds in GDP compared to less developed ones. For example, the Central and Eastern European region has 4 to 5 times less assets under management by PE funds than more developed countries in Western Europe. This is because PE funds invest in healthy and promising companies, and such investments—via operational improvements, financial leverage or managerial strengthening—can unlock potential that the company could not previously realize on its own, often positioning it as a successful company or even a leader in a much bigger market. This way, PE funds create significant added economic value through the growth of the companies they invest in, as well as through the returns they deliver to their investors. Specifically, it is interesting that buyout funds, such as Provectus Capital Partners, on a global scale, have outperformed all other types of funds in returns over the past 40 years, which is how long this industry has existed,” explained Čičak.

The panel emphasized that local regulation plays a major role in encouraging the development of the alternative fund industry, and Igor highlighted that in the last 7 to 8 years significant progress has been made in this context in Croatia, primarily through increasing the investment limits of pension funds in alternative funds.

Igor concluded that the domestic PE industry is developing very well, and Provectus Capital Partners has just completed the first subscription round for its second fund, PCP SEE Fund II, in the amount of €162.5 million. He stressed that thanks to the success of the first fund, investor trust was high, both from those who invested in the first fund and new investors. Given that PCP has already opened offices in Romania and Bulgaria and expanded its team of financial experts, the new fund will have a broader investment horizon and, in addition to Slovenia and Croatia, will also target other markets in the wider region.