CVC buys 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, Credit Agricole, HSBC, IKB, Intensa Sanpaolo, MPS Banca per l'Impresa, Natixis and UniCredit.

Company
Cerved is a Milan-based provider of business intelligence services. Established in its present form between 2008-2011 through the merger of seven companies, its corporate history goes back to 1974. In 2012, the company's turnover amounted to €292m. It employs 1,020 people.

Cerved provides corporate and financial details, payment history, customer and supplier relationship and other proprietory information to around 30,000 clients. Its client base includes 90% of Italian banks and 80% of Italy's 1,000 largest companies.

People
Giampiero Mazza, head of CVC's Italian division, led the deal for the firm. Luca Massi, managing director at Bain, and Maurizio Bottinelli, partner at Clessidra, managed the exit for the selling parties. Gianandrea De Bernardis is CEO of Cerved.

Advisers
Equity - Kirkland & Ellis (Legal).
Vendor - HSBC (Corporate finance); Kirkland & Ellis (Legal).

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• Topics
• Southern Europe
• Support services
• Buyouts
• Exits
• CVC Capital Partners
• Italy
• Permira
• Bain Capital
• Clessidra Capital Partners
• HSBC
• Credit Suisse
• Deutsche Bank
• BNP Paribas
• Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank
• Natixis
• UniCredit
• Secondary buyout