Private Equity News & Analysis

CVC launches financial services deal team

The UK-headquartered private equity firm will grow a niche team in the UK, US and Asia as it looks to capture some of the financial sector’s global GDP share.

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CVC Capital Partners has added another sector-focused deal team to its roster, dubbed the Global Financial Institutions Sector Team.

“It’s a continuation of what CVC is doing,” said managing partner Jonahtan Feuer, who will lead the team from London. “We’re establishing sectors and areas where you need to have more focused attention and understand [the given industry’s] nuances.”

The financial services sector, he added, “is a complex enough area where a specialist approach, focus and contacts are very important”. Specialised teams, such as the infrastructure team CVC launched in December, will work alongside CVC’s existing country teams.

“It’s basically adding a layer of skills and experience when we assess those businesses.”

Twenty-year CVC veteran Feuer will be joined on the team by Peter Rutland, who was hired by CVC last year after having previously worked for Advent International and in Goldman Sachs’ investment banking division.

Feuer told PEO he plans to add another person to the team in the UK, as well as several in the US and Asia.

Asked if CVC would join its private equity peers looking to purchase retail banking stakes, Feuer noted that while “an interesting area” and that he would “never say never”, he said retail banking was rife with regulatory complexities. 

He stressed that the financial services sector offered a diverse array of potential investments, from asset management to insurance and lending.

“Historically, private equity has not done as much in financial institutions [as it has] in other sectors. 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.”

As Feuer has shifted his focus to the financial sector, fellow managing partner Rob Lucas has taken full responsibility of CVC’s UK team. Both Feuer and Lucas were promoted to managing partner in August 2005.

The firm closed its most recent buyout fund on €12.1 billion in March 2008.