Our Principles

Growth engines

We look for growth opportunities in financial services, industrial services and real estate, and for financial and operational restructuring in energy, manufacturing, the service sector, and the food industry.

Smart money, active management

Our credo is active investment management. We do not look for passive, go-along-with-the-market trends. We identify and source opportunities to create and capture real value for investors and entrepreneurs:

• Minds-around. We put our best minds and experience into sizing up and solving your challenge – quickly, decisively, practically.
• Hands-on. Execution is king. We get involved in investment projects where an active role creates value – and more than meets the eye. We work directly and with our capability-network partners to achieve this.
• Hearts-in. If your heart is in your business, we are the right partner for you. When we commit to a client, we invest our own time, resources, relationships and money right alongside the client.

Our Team

Lubor Žalman | Partner at EnCor

I am a finance person through and through. I joined the foreign exchange department of Komerční banka (Société Générale Group) with an MSc in Physics and worked my way up to head Markets and Investment Banking five years later. Thereafter, I joined McKinsey & Company (pulled in by Viktor, my business partner today), where I advised banking and insurance clients throughout CEE.

After a brief Russian adventure, I became the CEO of Raiffeisenbank in the Czech Republic, which I transformed from a fringe player into a top-five Czech bank. While my development as a leader during those nine years at Raiffeisen was invaluable, I still missed the experience of starting my own business. That‘s why I stepped down and founded EnCor, thus returning to my investment banking roots.

Viktor Popovič | Partner at EnCor

After almost 20 years at McKinsey (a.o., having founded and led McKinsey’s Prague office), in 2001 I became the CEO of fast-growing Euram Bank, based in Vienna, which I later acquired from the original investors and built into a profitable private, investment and merchant bank. In 2013, after divesting the bank’s major proprietary holdings, I handed over the management to my colleagues and joined forces with my partners to create EnCor.

My focus has been on corporate finance: mergers, acquisitions and growth projects in banking, consumer goods and heavy industries. I have led proprietary investments in payment services, asset management, investment banking, insurance, aviation and concierge services.

Marie Fingerová | Office manager

Our Experience

Our investment, M&A and operational work is grounded in practical experience across industries and corporate functions.

Collectively, we have deep understanding of banking (universal as well as private and investment banking), insurance, financial services, asset management, real estate, energy, technology and telecoms, consumer goods, manufacturing, and heavy industries (chemicals, steel, mining, etc.). In many of these industries, we have served in senior corporate functions, incl. CEO roles, and led important strategic, investment, and transformation projects.

Below, we share a sample of proprietary investments and M&A transactions, which we have led/completed in the past 7 years

• eBanka acquisition by Raiffeisen Czech, and subsequent operational and cultural integration (USD 170 million)
• EIBANK (Bulgaria) sale to KBC (USD 600 million)
• Negotiation of energy generation investments (USD 40 million)
• Texakabank (Kazakhstan) sale to Sberbank (USD 130 million)
• Merger of two major RE holdings/developers (total assets USD 1.3+ billion)
• Acquisition program for telecom player to consolidate broadband market
• Long-term energy contract renegotiation (up to USD 290 million)

Our Clients

We work with enterpreneurs and active investors.

We help enterpreneurs in their growth aspirations through proprietary investments in their businesses or by linking them to the right sources of capital. We act as a long-term business thought-partner and support entrepreneurs with active project involvement in critical areas at critical times.

We help active investors evaluate and execute transactions. We bring in our extensive transaction experience, the right expertise from a wide network of industry practitioners, and pragmatic problem-solving and analytical capacity. We co-invest and stay involved also post-transaction, working actively with management teams on reaching and exceeding business objectives.

Lastly, we develop proprietary investments, bringing together both active and passive investors with the right executive talent to open and build up attractive business opportunities.