European private equity group CVC Capital Partners reported a jump in activity in its first results since going public in April, with more new investments and more exits from previous deals.
The Luxembourg-based group said it generated €9.4bn from exiting investments in the first half, up 108 per cent. It also spent 63 per cent more of its investors’ cash — €13.4bn in total — in the first six months of this year compared with the same period last year.
The results from CVC are the latest sign that the private equity industry is emerging from a two-year downturn in which higher interest rates made buying and selling companies harder.
In the second quarter, Apollo, Blackstone, KKR and Ares invested a combined $162bn, as conditions for the industry began to brighten.
CVC, which manages €193bn across investment strategies ranging from buyout to credit, twice postponed its listing before going public in April. Its shares have climbed 15 per cent since the IPO.
Established more than three decades ago by a group of former Citibank executives, CVC is one Europe’s largest private equity firms. Its portfolio of investments includes Lipton Teas, the Six Nations rugby tournament and Spanish football league La Liga.
Last month, the firm was part of a consortium that agreed to buy UK investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown for £5.4bn.
Despite the pick-up in activity, the buyout industry is sitting on more than $2tn of dry powder — capital that has been committed by investors but not yet deployed by private equity firms, according to data provider Preqin.