CVC's Cerved buys Recus for €18.8m

The purchase price for the 80% stake stands at €18.8m, though that figure could rise depending on medium-term results. The remaining 20% stake in the business has been retained by the company's managing director Alexander Breda.

Cerved funded the acquisition via its existing balance sheet.

Previous funding
In June 2014, Cerved listed in Milan. The company raised proceeds of around €490m via the listing. CVC remains the majority shareholder following the flotation, which involved a free float of 43%.

Shares were originally offered at 500-660 cents apiece, with the final price set at the lower end of the range on 510 cents, giving it a market cap of €995m.

In January 2013, CVC acquired Cerved from Bain Capital and Clessidra for €1.13bn. Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and HSBC provided financing for the transaction. HSBC ran the sale, which also attracted interest from Permira. Valuations for the target were close to €1bn, or 10x EBITDA, during the auction.

Bain and Clessidra acquired Cerved for €550m in December 2008 through holding company CeBi. The debt syndicate for the deal included BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, HSBC, IKB, Intensa Sanpaolo, MPS Banca per l'Impresa, Natixis and UniCredit.

Company
Founded in 1993 and based in Treviso, Recus is a debt collection company operating across Italy. The business has branches in Milan, Roma, Sassari and in Romania. Revenues reached €15.7m in 2013.

People
Giampiero Mazza, head of CVC's Italian division, led the 2013 buyout for the firm.

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