Southern European Private Equity: 2010 in review

Susannah Birkwood
07 January 2011

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The year 2010 saw significant improvement across the private equity market in Southern Europe. Read on for a month-by-month summary of the regional highlights.

January
• Permira joins forces with the Marzotto family to buy the €720m debt of fashion house Valentino for €265m.
• Ibersuizas acquires a majority stake in Spain's Mediterránea de Catering.
• Cognetas invests €65m in vending machine provider Gruppo Argenta.

February
• HgCapital closes two Spanish solar PV project deals via its Renewable Power Partners fund.
• The Amplio Group invests around €13m in 6MW of solar plants in southern Italy.
• Denham doubles its money selling PV plant developer SunRay Renewable Energy to SunPower for $277m.

March
• Alto Partners acquires a 51% stake in Italian design furniture business IPE Cavalli.
• CVC Capital Partners, PAI Partners and Permira approve a €131.4m capital increase for fashion retailer Cortefiel.
• Miura Private Equity buys Spanish merchandising firm Marcelo Vilá for less than €25m.

April
• CVC Capital Partners purchases 35% of Galician fibre optics company R Cable.
• Diana Capital begins fundraising for its new €175m-target vehicle.
• Miura Private Equity acquires an 80% stake in credit management services company Gescobro.

May
• BC Partners and Cinven's IPO of travel reservation specialist Amadeus raises €1.45bn, becoming the largest listing in Europe since the onset of the crisis.
• KKR acquires a 49.9% stake in helicopter business Inaer from Investindustrial for almost €350m.
• Sun Capital acquires 100% of toy manufacturer Famosa in a deal valued at €130m.

June
• Italy's government is forced to make major pledges on debt control.
• bcnHighgrowth completes two deals, providing €2m of expansion finance for mobile technology firm Oonair and €1m for real-estate search engine Nuora.
• Montezemolo, Rothschild and Amadeus acquire a majority stake in telecommunications company Octo Telematics.

July
• Bakery business Panrico's debt providers reach an agreement over a debt-for-equity swap; backer Apax Partners loses most of its investment.
• Ambienta provides Italian industrial cooling systems producer Spig SpA with €30m expansion capital.
• Madrid-based law firm Gómez-Acebo & Pombo announces its intention to create a stand-alone private equity practice.

August
• CVC Capital Partners is involved the region's largest deal of the year, leading a €3bn funding round for toll road operator Abertis Infraestructuras.
• HgCapital's acquires TeamSystem from Bain Capital for €565m.
• AC Desarrollo closes two transactions, investing in fast food franchise Grupo NRSur and English language training company Vaughn Systems.
• Atlas Capital provides €6m in expansion capital for Uveauve.

September
• Ibersuizas acquires private label manufacturer Ice Cream Factory Comaker.
• Nasca Capital sells editorial group El Derecho y Quantor to Editions Lefebvre and puts internet domain business Acens up for sale.
• 3i finally exits Pancreac via a trade sale to Illinois Tool Works.
• Mercapital welcomes HIG Capital aboard portfolio company Núter.

October
• Terra Firma closes the €670m buyout of solar power company Rete Rinnovabile.
• The Riverside Company backs the €100m SBO of Rome-based waterwear brand Arena from BS Private Equity.
• Barcelona-based shopping club receives €70m from Index Ventures and General Atlantic.
• Consortium led by Cipio Partners sells Spanish BuyVIP.com to Amazon.

November
• CVC Capital Partners invests a further €157m in R Cable for another 35% of equity.
• Advent International completes a €100m buyout of property valuation firm Tinsa.
• Investindustrial buys ambulance group Transport Sanitari Catalunya (TSC) from parent company Agrupació Mútua.

December
• Blackstone and N+1 agree to buy Mivisa, Spain's biggest maker of cans for food products, for €900m.
• Trilantic Capital completes the €200m buyout of Italy's third largest slot machine operator, Gamenet.
• Trilantic also invests €50m in Portguese publishing group LeYa in one of the only deals to be realised in the country since the summer.