CVC Capital Partners
CVC Capital Partners is a private equity and investment advisory firm with approximately US$111 billion in secured commitments since inception across European and Asian private equity, credit and growth funds. As of 2019, CVC managed US$75 billion of assets,[1] the funds managed or advised by CVC are invested in 73 companies worldwide, employing over 300,000 people in numerous countries.[2] Since 1981, CVC has completed over 500,000 investments across a wide range of industries and countries. CVC was founded in 1981 and today has over 400 employees working across its network of 24 offices throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas.
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Type | Private |
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Industry | Private equity |
Founded | 1981 |
Headquarters | Luxembourg |
Key people | Steve Koltes, Donald Mackenzie, Rolly van Rappard |
Products | Private equity, venture capital, credit asset management |
Services |
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Total assets | US$75 billion [1] |
History
Founding
American banking giant, Citicorp, had established an investment arm in 1968 to focus on venture capital investments. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, Citicorp Venture Capital, at that time under the leadership of chairman William T. Comfort, continued to invest in early-stage businesses but also expanded into the emerging leveraged buyout business. CVC Capital Partners was founded in 1981 as the European arm of Citicorp Venture Capital.
Among Citicorp Venture Capital's early employees and in Europe were Jon Moulton, Mike Smith, and Frank Neale. Of the group's original European leadership, most would leave by the late 1980s. Moulton left the firm to co-found Schroder Ventures, the predecessor of Permira, in 1985. Neale also departed to form Phildrew Ventures.
Spinout from Citicorp and the 1990s
By the early 1990s, Michael Smith, who joined Citicorp in 1982, was leading Citicorp Venture Capital in Europe along with other managing directors Steven Koltes, Hardy McLain, Donald Mackenzie, Iain Parham, and Rolly Van Rappard. In 1993, Smith and the senior investment professionals of Citicorp Venture Capital negotiated a spinout from Citibank to form an independent private equity firm, CVC Capital Partners.[3] In 2006, the US arm of Citigroup Venture Capital also spun out of the bank to form a new firm, known as Court Square Capital Partners. CVC operated offices in London, Paris and Frankfurt.
Following the spinout, CVC raised its first investment fund with $300 million of commitments, half coming from Citicorp and the rest from high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors. Now independent, CVC also completed its transition from venture capital investments to leveraged buyouts and investments in mature businesses. CVC would follow up with its second fund in 1996, its first fully independent of Citibank, with $840 million of capital commitments.
History of private equity and venture capital |
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Early history |
(origins of modern private equity) |
The 1980s |
(leveraged buyout boom) |
The 1990s |
(leveraged buyout and the venture capital bubble) |
The 2000s |
(dot-com bubble to the credit crunch) |
2000s
By 2000, CVC was one of the largest and best known private equity firms in Europe. In 2001, CVC completed fundraising for its third investment fund, which was the largest private equity fund raised in Europe at the time, just ahead of funds raised by other leading firms, Apax Partners and BC Partners[4] Also, around the same time, CVC expanded into Asia with a $750 million fund focusing exclusively on investments in Asian companies.
From November 2005 to March 2006, CVC gradually purchased 63.4% of the shares of the Formula One Group, owner of the Formula One auto racing championship.
In 2007, CVC expanded to the U.S., opening an office in New York City, headed by Christopher Stadler and overseen by Rolly van Rappard.[5]
2010s
In 2012, CVC reduced its shares in the Formula One Group to 35.5%. The deputy team principal of Force India, Bob Fernley, accused CVC of "raping the sport" during the period of its involvement in Formula One.[6]
In January 2013, Smith retired from the role of chairman and Koltes, Mackenzie and Van Rappard were appointed co-chairmen of the group.[7]
In February 2015, CVC made its first investment from CVC Growth Partners in Wireless Logic, Europe's largest machine-to-machine managed service provider, acquiring it from ECI Partners[8]
In March 2015, CVC bought 80% of shares of gambling company Sky Betting & Gaming.
In June 2015, CVC acquired the German perfume retailer Douglas AG for an disclosed fee from private equity firm Advent International.[9]
In September 2015, CVC opened an office in Warsaw.[10]
In November 2015, CVC and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board both acquired American pet supplier Petco for a fee of around $4.6 billion.[11]
In April 2016, CVC Capital Partners acquired German betting operator Tipico.[12]
In August 2016, CVC Capital Partners agreed to buy a 15% stake in PT Siloam International Hospitals TbK, among Indonesia's and South East Asia's largest corporate chains of hospitals [13]
In September 2016, CVC Capital Partners agreed to sell control of the Formula One Group to John Malone’s Liberty Media in a deal worth US$4.4bn. The two-part deal would see the US media group buy 18.7 per cent of the F1 parent company Delta Topco for $746mn in cash from a consortium of shareholders led by CVC. In 2017, a second payment of $354mn in cash and $3.3bn in newly issued shares in a Liberty Media tracking stock will see Liberty Media assume full control of Formula One once the deal is approved by regulators, the FIA and Liberty’s shareholders.[14]
Towards the end of 2019 CVC Capital Partners purchased Ontic from BBA Aviation for $1.365 billion.
Investment funds
Fund[15] | Year | Region | Size (millions) |
CVC European Equity Partners I | 1996 | Europe | $840 |
CVC European Equity Partners II | 1998 | Europe | $3,333 |
CVC Asia Fund I | 2000 | Asia | $750 |
CVC European Equity Partners III[5] | 2001 | Europe | $3,971 |
CVC European Equity Partners IV[16] | 2005 | Europe | €6,000 |
CVC Capital Partners Asia Pacific II | 2005 | Asia | $1,975 |
CVC European Equity Partners Tandem Fund | 2007 | Europe | €4,123 |
CVC European Equity Partners V | 2008 | Europe | €10,750 |
CVC Capital Partners Asia Pacific III | 2008 | Asia | $4,120 |
CVC Capital Partners Asia Pacific IV | 2014 | Asia | $3,495 |
CVC European Equity Partners VI | 2014 | Global | €10,907 |
CVC Growth Partners | 2015 | US & Europe | $1,000 |
CVC European Equity Partners VII | 2017 | Global | $18,000 |
CVC Growth Partners II[17] | 2019 | US & Europe | $1,600 |
CVC European Equity Partners VIII [18] | 2020 | US & Europe | €21,300 |
Notable Investments
- AlixPartners: Management Consulting Firm
- Avast: IT security company;[19]
- Breitling SA: Swiss luxury watchmaker
- RAC: automotive rescue service provider in the UK;[20]
- Cortefiel: apparel retailers in Spain;
- PKP Energetyka: Polish railway network electricity distributor;
- Petco Holdings Inc.: major pet supplies retail chain;[21]
- Magnum Corporation: Malaysian lottery operator.
- Formula One Group: The company that owns Formula One auto racing.
- UnitedLex: One of the biggest legal services companies in the world.
Controversies
In January 2015, CVC Capital Partners and Bencis Capital Partners were sentenced to pay fines by the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets after it charged the former Dutch portfolio company of the two firms, Meneba Beheer, with breaking competition rules through price fixing.[22]
The Dutch regulator ruled that the two firms must pay between €450,000 and €1.5 million after Meneba Beheer, which was itself fined €9 million by the authority, was involved in a collective agreement with competitors to keep prices stable between 2001 and 2007.
References
- Syed, Sarah (18 July 2019). "CVC Raises 4.6 Billion Euros for Second Long-Term Fund". Bloomberg. Retrieved 27 October 2019.
- Partners, CVC Capital. "CVC Capital Partners closes second Growth Fund with commitments of $1.6 billion". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
- "Briton who has steered CVC to the top". The Times. February 23, 2007.
- "CVC Capital Partners closes record €4.65bn European fund". AltAssets. June 28, 2001. Archived from the original on July 20, 2012.
- "CVC sets up in US". AltAssets. January 31, 2007.
- "CVC ownership of F1 should serve as a warning to Premiership Rugby". 2018-09-10.
- "CVC chairman Michael Smith steps down after 30 years". Retrieved 2016-09-05.
- "CVC buys Wireless Logic from ECI - PE Hub". PE Hub. 2015-02-11. Retrieved 2017-08-31.
- Kirsti Knolle (1 June 2015). "CVC buys German perfume retailer Douglas". Reuters. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
- "CVC opens Warsaw office, hires Krawczyk from Innova". AltAssets. 17 September 2015.
- "CVC, Canada's CPPIB to buy Petco for about $4.6 billion". Reuters. 23 November 2015.
- Langworth, Hannah (25 April 2016). "CVC acquires German betting operator Tipico". Real Deals.
- Editorial, Reuters. "CVC to buy 15 percent of Indonesian hospital operator Siloam from..."
- "US media firm Liberty Media to buy Formula 1". BBC News. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
- "Preqin Online Database". Preqin. September 05, 2016.
- "Pan-European CVC closes €6bn European fund". AltAssets. July 29, 2005. Archived from the original on January 16, 2013.
- "CVC Banks $1.6 Billion Tech Fund". WSJ. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
- "CVC Capital Closes Record 21 Billion-Euro Buyout Fund". Bloomberg. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
- Lunden, Ingrid. "Security Software Firm Avast Gets CVC Capital Investment, Now Valued At $1B". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-09-05.
- Kleinman, Mark (December 2, 2015). "F1 Shareholder CVC Motors To £2bn RAC Deal". Sky News. Retrieved December 3, 2015.
- Driebusch, Telis Demos And Corrie. "Forget Going Public, U.S. Companies Want to Get Bought". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2015-11-29.
- "ACM fines investment companies for cartel activities of portfolio company". www.elexica.com. Retrieved 2016-09-05.