Michal Hutnik

Michał Hutnik is a Warsaw-based investment professional whose public LinkedIn profile lists him at TEP Capital, a Polish private equity fund founded in January 2020 by Tomasz Woźniak and Eckhardt Thomas. Public investor databases previously associated him with Tar Heel Capital as an analyst in Warsaw, but the current publicly visible professional affiliation found in research is TEP Capital.

TEP Capital focuses on Polish mid-market businesses and controlling-stake acquisitions. The firm says it typically invests 10-100 million PLN of equity per deal and targets companies with EBITDA of 5-50 million PLN. Its anchor investor is Thomas Gruppe, a European precast-concrete and building-materials group led by Eckhardt Thomas.

Hutnik’s public education record includes ESADE Business & Law School from 2017 to 2018, along with earlier education entries from 2012-2016 and 2014-2015 that are not named in the public LinkedIn preview. He has also been listed as a board member of the ESADE Alumni Poland Chapter since October 2019 and participated in the Capital Market Leaders Academy XIV in July 2019.

Earlier public investor-directory records tied Hutnik to Tar Heel Capital and listed interests including leisure, manufacturing, recreation, food and beverage, hardware/electronics, and travel. Because those are third-party profiles and appear stale relative to his current LinkedIn affiliation, the more reliable current investment lens is TEP Capital’s private-equity mandate.

• TEP Capital describes its mandate as “flexible and rooted in the partnership with sellers,” with an emphasis on transparent, founder/seller-friendly transaction processes.
• The firm targets acquisitions of controlling stakes, all shares, or selected assets, depending on the situation, market, and business model.
• TEP generally looks for Polish mid-market companies with EBITDA of 5-50 million PLN and equity needs of 10-100 million PLN.
• The firm’s investment criteria include a profitable operating core or clear path to profitability, sufficient operating scale, competitive advantage, strong people or internal know-how, and development potential through M&A, production-capacity expansion, operational improvements, or foreign expansion.
• Sector emphasis is broad but operationally focused: added-value manufacturing, outsourcing operators, healthcare providers, and advanced B2B operators.
• TEP contrasts itself with traditional funds by pointing to decision-makers being involved from the beginning of the deal process and capital being on the balance sheet of Thomas Gruppe rather than dependent on external capital calls.