CVC Capital Partners

CVC Capital Partners

Type	Private
Industry	Private Equity
Founded	1981 Independent 1993
Headquarters	London, United Kingdom Luxembourg City
Key people	Michael Smith, Steven Koltes, Hardy McLain, Donald Mackenzie, Iain Parham, Rolly (Ridder) Van Rappard
Products	Private equity funds
Total assets	$46 billion
Website	www.cvc.com

CVC Capital Partners is one of the top five largest private equity firms globally with approximately US$46 billion in funds focused on management buyouts. Since 1981, CVC has completed over 250 investments across a wide range of industries and countries.

CVC was founded in 1981 and today has a network of eighteen offices throughout Europe, Asia and the United States.

History

Founding

The U.S.-based bank, 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 originally founded in 1981 as the European arm of Citicorp Venture Capital.

Among Citicorp Venture Capital's early managing directors in Europe were John Botts, Otto Van der Wyck, Jon Moulton and Frank Neale. Of the group's original European leadership, most would leave by the late 1980s. Botts left in 1987 to found his own boutique investment banking firm, Botts & Company. Moulton left the bank to co-found Schroder Ventures (the predecessor of Permira) in 1985. The following year, Van der Wyck left to co-found European private equity firm BC Partners in 1986 and today serves as chairman of AlpInvest and a senior advisor to Coller Capital. Neale also departed to join Phildrew Ventures, which subsequently became UBS Capital and later IRRfc.

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. 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.

Since 2000

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. Also, around the same time, CVC expanded into Asia with a $750 million fund focusing exclusively on investments in Asian companies.

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.

Investment funds

Fund	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	2001	Europe	$3,970
CVC European Equity Partners IV	2005	Europe	€ 6,000
CVC Capital Partners Asia Pacific II	2005	Asia	$1,975
CVC European Equity Partners IV Tandem Fund	2006	Europe	€ 4,123
CVC European Equity Partners V	2008	Europe	€ 10,750
CVC Capital Partners Asia Pacific III	2008	Asia	$4,119

Investments

Europe and the United States

CVC's current European and US portfolio of companies includes:

• Pilot Travel Centers: the largest truck stop chain in the United States (co-owned with Pilot Corporation);
• Formula One Group: the world's leading motor sport management business;
• Samsonite: the global luggage company;
• Automobile Association: the leading automotive rescue service provider in the UK;
• Merlin Entertainments: worlds second largest theme park operator, jointly controlled with KIRKBI/Blackstone Group
• Cortefiel: one of the largest apparel retailers in Spain;
• Seat Pagine Gialle: the leading directories business in Italy;
• ParmarCorp: leading private equity UK/US;
• Leslie's Pool Supplies: the largest U.S. retailer of swimming pool supplies;
• De Post / La Poste: the Belgian postal services operator;
• Univar: the largest chemical distribution company in the US and Europe;
• C1000: Dutch supermarket chain

Asia-Pacific

CVC's current Asia Pacific portfolio includes:

• Zhuhai Zhongfu: the largest PET bottler in China;
• Nien Made: the world's largest window shutter manufacturer, based in Taiwan;
• Plantation Timber Products: a leading wood fibreboards producer in China;
• Nine Entertainment Co.: Australia's largest diversified media group;
• DCA Group: the largest diagnostic imaging center operator in Australia;
• Amtek: Singapore's largest precision metal components company;
• GS Paper and Packaging: Malaysia's largest paper and packaging company;
• Skylark: the largest restaurant operator in Japan;
• Minit Asia Pacific: the leading shoe repair and key cutting provider in Japan; and
• Shinwa Co.: the leading system scaffolding supplier in Japan
• Matahari: Indonesia's largest department store chain
• I-Med Network: Australia's largest radiology company

External links

• CVC Capital Partners