(FORTUNE Magazine) – Not only is the U.S. starting to invest in Eastern Europe -- Eastern Europe is starting to invest here as well. Earlier this year Planeta, a printing press manufacturer near Dresden, East Germany, purchased Royal Zenith, a Great Neck, New York, company that distributes Planeta's presses in North America. Planeta is one of the few efficient state-owned enterprises in Eastern Europe; it earned $30 million on sales of $180 million last year and exported half of its highly regarded presses to the West. Company officials won't say how much they paid for Royal Zenith, but they received $25 million of financing from Bayerische Hypotheken & Wechsel, a West German bank. What are East Germans like as bosses? Says Allan Malachuk, president of Royal Zenith from 1983 to 1987 and now back at Planeta North America with his old title: ''They're very capitalist oriented. It's definitely helped our business.'' - M.A.