Private equity firm The Carlyle Group today announced that it has established a team to conduct private equity investments in Central and Eastern Europe. The CEE team will be headed by managing director Ryszard Wojtkowski, who is based in Warsaw. Wojtkowski joins Carlyle from Enterprise Investors, where he was managing partner. 

“We see long term opportunity in Central and Eastern Europe,” said Daniel D’Aniello, Carlyle co-founder and managing director.

Carlyle’s CEE team will make growth capital and buyout investments in healthy, growing companies including consumer and retail, industrial, IT and media, pharmaceuticals/healthcare and financial services.

With the addition of a CEE team, the geographic scope of Carlyle’s investment capabilities will extend to Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, the Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia). In addition to countries that have already joined the European Union, investments may also be considered in Croatia, Serbia and Ukraine.