Europe’s largest private equity group, CVC Capital Partners, has delayed plans for a public listing in the first half of this year, with market turbulence hampering a multibillion-dollar IPO it hoped to carry out in June.
The buyout group has told analysts it expects its initial public offering, a historic turnaround for a secretive firm that has been in private hands for three decades, to take place this fall or early 2023, two people with knowledge of the matter said. .
CVC plans to float just 10 percent of its business, one of the people said. The group was valued at around €15bn last year when it agreed to sell a minority stake to Blue Owl’s Dyal Capital unit.
Markets have been hit by inflation, interest rate hikes, slowing growth and the war in Ukraine, which brought a hot market for IPOs to a halt. Less than $3 billion has been raised in traditional IPOs in Europe so far this year, compared with $32.7 billion in the same period last year, according to data from Dealogic.
CVC intends to list on Amsterdam’s Euronext stock exchange, in a blow to the London Stock Exchange, which has struggled to attract big, successful listings. CVC has its roots in the UK capital, where it was spun off from a division of Citigroup in 1993.
It plans to expand its administrative functions and hire more investor relations staff in the coming months as it prepares to list, one of the people said. He has set a target of €25 billion for his next private equity fund.
CVC said no decisions on timing had been made.
Only two companies have raised more than $500 million in European IPOs so far this year, Vår Energi in Oslo and Technoprobe in Milan, figures from Dealogic show. Both priced their deals at the bottom of their target ranges.
CVC’s rival buyout group Bridgepoint last year became the first major private equity group to go public in London in decades. Its shares are down nearly 25 percent from their IPO price.
Sweden’s EQT listed in 2019 and has become the world’s best-valued private equity firm, with shares trading well above their listing price.
CVC plans to keep most or all of the lucrative profits it makes buying and selling companies in private hands, while giving public investors the profits from its smaller but more predictable management fee income, the Financial Times reported in January. . The model is similar to the one used by EQT.
CVC has 157 billion euros of committed funds and 25 offices around the world, according to its website. He is best known for deals including Formula One, the Six Nations rugby tournament in Europe, the Teneo communications company and Unilever’s tea business.
Additional reporting by Nicholas Megaw
