(Bloomberg) -- CVC Capital Partners Plc has raised €4.61 billion ($4.8 billion) for its latest private equity fund dedicated to longer-term investments.
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CVC Strategic Opportunities III matches the size of the predecessor, according to a statement Tuesday. The fund puts capital to work for longer than the private equity industry’s typical four-to-five-year investment horizon. It will target investments in defensive sectors, using less leverage in exchange for lower returns.
“StratOps is an active private equity fund focused on creating long-term compounding returns for investors,” Lorne Somerville, managing partner and co-head of CVC’s strategic opportunities platform, said in an interview. “We are more interested in an evolutionary value creation plan, versus an aggressive value creation plan.”
CVC has now secured total commitments of more than €13 billion for its strategic opportunities funds, which also pay dividends as a way of returning cash to investors. A “substantial” return yield meant there was less pressure on the firm to generate distributions to paid in capital, Somerville said.
In its strategic opportunities funds, CVC typically underwrites deals with an eight-year holding period and has bet on companies including vegetation management provider Asplundh, diagnostic testing equipment provider Sebia and coating solutions supplier Hempel. Last year, it sold the majority of its stake in United Arab Emirates-based private school operator GEMS Education.
“We have higher predictability of outcomes irrespective of environment,” said Somerville. “We were able to perform through Brexit, Covid and the inflation surge of 2022, none of which were exams we’d elected for.”
Private equity investors have been getting more selective about where they deploy money, spooked by slowing returns at a time when asset monetization is spluttering because of challenging M&A and IPO markets. CVC raised about €16 billion of capital across strategies last year, snapping up a large share of investor money in the difficult fundraising market.
“Our LPs are top investors in our main fund — those looking for the opportunity for lower risk investments within their private equity portfolio,” Somerville said. “Some have a special basket for this strategy whilst others include it in their broader private equity allocation given its performance on a net-of-fees basis.”