Private Equity Professionals

CVC hires head of US financial institutions team

Kamil Salame, former partner with DLJ Merchant Banking and managing director with Credit Suisse, will head up CVC’s financial institutions group from the US. The firm launched its financial institutions team last year.

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CVC Capital Partners has appointed former DLJ Merchant Banking partner Kamil Salame to head its US financial institutions group, a sector the firm expanded into last year.

Kamil joins CVC from DLJ Merchant Banking, where he worked as a partner and member of the management committee. He was also a managing director of Credit Suisse.

At DLJ, Kamil led the group’s investment activities in financial services and media. He completed about 30 private equity deals while at DLJ, in sectors including financial services, real estate, media, industrial and consumer.

CVC established its global financial institutions sector team in September with a team in the UK, and with plans to build teams in the US and Asia. The team’s global head is Jonathan Feuer.

The team’s focus is on investments in the financial services sector, including insurance companies and asset managers, and possibly retail banks, Feuer told PEO last year.

“Historically, private equity has not done as much in financial institutions [as it has] in other sectors,” he said. “Financial institutions’ [portion of] the shared GDP is pretty high, so logically private equity should have some of that. We think we can add good value to those businesses and position them for growth.”

CVC closed its latest fund, European Equity Partners V, on €11 billion in January, short of its €12.1 billion target. Despite the global financial turmoil, the firm has been busy with deals this year, including the acquisition of Post Danmark’s entire stake in De Post – La Poste, Belgium’s national postal service, for €373 million.

CVC has also emerged as the leading bidder in the race to acquire Barclays’ iShares division. The firm is in exclusive negotiations with Barclays and is set to buy the ETF business for £3 billion (€3.2 billion; $4.3 billion). The deal would be 60 to 70 percent financed by the seller, according to a media report.

CVC recently displaced Apax Partners as European LBO firm of the year in the Private Equity International Awards.