Towards an IPO of CVC, owner of Panzani and keen on investing in sport?


(BFM Bourse) – According to the Financial Times, private equity firm CVC Capital Parners has relaunched its plans to list on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. An operation that would probably amount to billions of euros.

It would potentially be a big IPO. According to information from FinancialTimespublished on Monday, private equity firm CVC Capital Partners has reportedly relaunched plans to list on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, with a deal that could take place by the end of the year, sources say. close to the file interviewed by the British daily.

THE FinancialTimes underlines that CVC Capital Partners had considered an IPO last year before changing its mind following market conditions made difficult by the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. But the rebound in the stock markets this year and the fact that CVC recently managed to raise 26 billion euros for one of its funds have revived those IPO plans, the newspaper’s sources said. These same people close to the file explain however that no final decision has been made and that the project could change.

Always according to FinancialTimesCVC was valued at 15 billion euros when the company agreed to sell a minority stake in its capital to a division of asset manager Blue Owl in 2021.

Asked by the British daily, CVC did not comment.

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pasta and sports

The private equity company manages, according to its website, assets representing 140 billion euros with stakes in 120 unlisted companies, very diverse.

CVC is particularly known to the general public for having acquired the Panzani pasta brand from the Spanish group Ebro Foods last year. Especially CVC has invested heavily in sports. The company had, for example, acquired a stake in Formula 1 which it then sold to Liberty Media.

Last year, the LFP, the professional football league in France, created a commercial subsidiary in which CVC took 13% for 1.5 billion euros. CVC has also injected via an agreement with La Liga, 2 billion euros into Spanish football, obtaining in exchange 8% of the capital of a company managing the income from television rights and sponsorship of the Spanish football league, according to Reuters.

A test for private equity

In addition to football, CVC has also invested in rugby (it took 14% of the body managing the Six Nations tournament), volleyball, and even tennis (via an agreement in March with the WTA, the association of women’s tennis).

And outside of sport, the private equity firm has, for example, taken stakes in the Swiss watch brand Breitling and in 2015 acquired the cosmetics and make-up group Douglas.

The IPO of CVC would be a test for private equity firms that had been on the rise in 2021, with then a real enthusiasm of the market for this type of activity. The success of the IPO in September 2021 in Paris of Antin Infrastructure Partners, specializing in infrastructure, had perfectly illustrated this. But since then Antin’s share price has suffered, with a drop of more than 50% over one year, showing that this enthusiasm has probably waned.

Julien Marion – ©2023 BFM Bourse



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