CVC tests waters for €11bn buy-out fund by Finance News Bulletin

Published: 07/12/07

CVC Capital Partners, one of Europe’s most violent private equity firms, is canvassing investors about plans to lift an €11bn ($162bn) buy-out fund next year, providing a vital test of investor hunger in the credit squeezeMost investors still aim to boost their private equity exposure but the praise squeeze has slowed the pace of exits and refinancings by coup firms This has stemmed the flow of money back to investors, creation them less anxious to re-invest quickly

CVC, which owns 44 companies employing 309,000 populace and generating €385bn of sales, is also close to to announcing its first close for a planned $4bn Asia fund“While limited associates are cognisant of the market disturbance, what we have seen with a number of investors is that they are obviously in this for the long term, and when they are in this for seven to eight years they are not driven by the short-term type of weather,” Michael Smith, chairman, saidIf CVC exceeds the €11bn aim, the buy-out finance would be Europe’s biggest, above Apax Partners and Permira, which both recently raised buy-out money of about €11bn

The credit squeeze has meant confidential equity firms are no longer clever to raise abundant amounts of cheap debt to refinance their acquisitions as near the beginning as one year after completing them They may also need to hold on to companies for longer“It seems mega-funds are being toned down since Apax raised just over €11bn this day,” said Mounir Guen, chief executive of MVision, the UK-based placement agent that mechanism for many of the world’s biggest buy-out firmsCVC has been concerned in some of Europe’s most controversial deals, including an unsuccessful £11

4bn ($235bn) offer for J Sainsbury, the UK supermarket group, and the £175bn takeover of the AA motor armed forces groupMichael Halford at SJ Berwin, one of the most important UK law firms for confidential equity fundraising, said: “From our perspective, investors are showing more caution than perhaps before the summer, but belongings are generally still strong

”KKR, TPG, Thomas H Lee associates, Bain assets, Advent International and France’s PAI are among 1,196 private equity firms seeking to raise $619bn, according to Private evenhandedness IntelligenceCVC this week announced tactics to raise $2bn for its first infrastructure finance, joining the growing ranks of buy-out firms looking to obtain utilities and public services, such as hospitals and authority stations© Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2007 "FT" and "Financial era" are trademarks of The Financial era Ltd

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