Europe Still an Attractive Investment: Advent Exec
Even in the face of an ongoing debt crisis, Europe is still an attractive investment opportunity, David Mussafer, co-chairman of Advent International Company, a global private equity firm, told CNBC Wednesday.
"It's an important market and it's one that we're fully committed to," Mussafer said. "And when you look at the way we invest, we don't tend to take broad macro themes but really define companies and situations that are specific, where we believe we can help those businesses grow."
This granular way of viewing companies allows him to spot potential investment opportunities abroad, he added. "Certainly there are some troubling themes in Western Europe, but we still think there are some very attractive investments."
Advent has invested in a whole host of opportunities from retail to industrial and healthcare throughout Germany. "We've also been successful in the U.K., Spain, France and the Netherlands, so there are a lot of different opportunities that we see."
But Mussafer takes a different approach when it comes to emerging markets, which tend to be less established and impose heavy government laws.
"You have to [believe] that the economic environment, the volatility that can sometimes accompany some of those emerging markets, is something you can deal with. But we've tried to push beyond and really look deeper at some of the opportunities," he explained.
In addition, Mussafer went on to say things have been getting "brighter" for investors and that private equity volume has been up 50 percent in the first half of 2011—noting that private valuations have often been higher than the public markets.
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