CVC sells 14.9% stake in Cerved for €190m

The sale of 29 million shares, valued at 650 cents apiece, took place via an accelerated bookbuilding process. Following the divestment, CVC retains 47.7 million shares in the company, equivalent to a 24.4% stake.

The latest sell-down comes four months after the GP sold a 16.4% stake for €203.2m and around a year after Cerved acquired an 80% stake in debt collection business Recus for an initial consideration of €18.8m.

JP Morgan acted as bookrunner in the latest placement.

Previous funding
Cerved listed in Milan in June 2014, raising proceeds of around €490m via the IPO. CVC remained the majority shareholder following the flotation, which involved a free float of 43%.

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

CVC had bought Cerved from Bain Capital and Clessidra for €1.13bn in January 2013. 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 in December 2008 for €550m 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
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. The company has a headcount of 1,236 and generated a turnover of €331.3m in 2014, with EBITDA of €160.1m.

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

Advisers
Vendor – Latham & Watkins (Legal).

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