CVC Capital Partners (“CVC”), a leading international private equity firm in Europe and Asia, announces the appointment of Istvan Szoke with responsibility for building CVC’s business within Central and Eastern Europe (‘CEE’), effective April 2008.

Prior to taking up this appointment, Istvan Szoke was a Partner at Advent International focusing on the firm’s CEE investments based in London and Warsaw. Whilst at Advent, Istvan led or co-led investments including CCS, Bolix, and Oskar Mobil, and was a Director of portfolio companies including Ultimo and Kamax. Prior to joining Advent in 1999, Mr Szoke was a founding Managing Partner of Eastern Heritage Capital, a Swiss asset management firm. He has also held positions at Vontobel Asset Management and Bankers Trust focusing on investing in CEE throughout his career.

Mr Szoke comments: “I am looking forward to joining CVC and building a team to pursue investment opportunities in CEE, further bolstering the firms’ international investment platform.”

Rob Lucas, Managing Partner, comments: "CVC has been seeing increasingly interesting investment opportunities across the CEE markets. We are delighted to welcome Istvan to CVC, he brings a wealth of experience to our team and with a combination of our financial resources and network, he will be well positioned to build our business across the region.”