By Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro and Anousha Sakoui
LONDON (Reuters) -CVC Capital Partners said on Monday it planned to list its shares on Euronext Amsterdam, in one of the most highly anticipated initial public offerings in Europe this year.
The company and its backers aim to raise at least 1.25 billion euros ($1.33 billion) through the sale of new and existing stock, confirming earlier reporting by Reuters in October.
Institutional shareholders including Singaporean wealth fund GIC, the Kuwait Investment Authority and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority are selling shares as part of the IPO, CVC said.
Blue Owl has committed to take up to 10% of the stock offering.
CVC could fetch a valuation of more than 10 billion euros in a listing, sources have previously told Reuters.
CVC is the latest buyout group in Europe to attempt an IPO, following in the footsteps of rivals like Bridgepoint and EQT.
EQT has seen its share price rise nearly 50% in the last six months and is up more than 17% so far this year.
With potential interest rate cuts ahead boosting stock markets, bankers are hopeful for a revival in new stock listings in the coming months, following a string of deals in the first quarter of the year.
So far, new listing performance has been mixed.
Last month Galderma saw its shares soar on its market debut, while CVC-backed perfume retailer Douglas has traded below its issue price.
CVC has been looking to launch an IPO for some time but unfavourable market conditions had prevented it from listing so far.
It aborted its latest attempt in November after seeing turbulent markets rock other European IPOs.
World stocks wobbled on Friday as tensions in the Middle East started to flare but were up again on Monday, leading CVC to announce its intention to float shortly after European bourses opened.
As part of its plans, CVC unveiled its proposed new board led by Rob Lucas as CEO, who overseas the firm’s European and Americas private equity strategy.
Managing partner Fred Watt will be chief financial officer and Rona Fairhead will be a senior independent non-executive director.
CVC, which oversees 186 billion euros in assets, is striving to transform itself into a diversified asset manager. Last year, it announced a deal to acquire infrastructure manager DIF and completed a tie-up with secondaries manager Glendower.
High interest rates have made it harder for private equity firms to raise new funds and sell existing investments, but CVC bucked the trend last year when it raised the world’s largest buyout fund at 26 billion euros.
($1 = 0.9385 euros)
(Reporting by Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro and Anousha Sakoui, Editing by Louise Heavens and Susan Fenton)
