CVC float to hand private equity tycoon £130m

CVC Capital Partners’ cofounder could be in line for a £130m pay day when the company he helped set up three decades ago goes public.

Donald Mackenzie is cashing in a big chunk of his 7pc stake when the private equity firm lists in amsterdam later this week.

The scotsman looks set to sell up to £130m of the £885m holding.

steve Koltes, another co-founder, is in line for a £30m bonanza from selling part of his 4.4pc stake, which is worth up to £563m altogether.

CVC yesterday set out details of the initial public offering (IPO) which will see its shares valued at between £11.20 and £12.90 – pricing the whole company at between £11.2bn and £12.9bn.

Banks working on the offering said it has been oversubscribed multiple times suggesting strong demand.

Mackenzie and Koltes, together with third founder rolly van rappard, founded CVC Capital Partners in 1993 when it was spun out of Citicorp Venture Capital London.

Based in Luxembourg, it has grown into a private equity powerhouse with a global network of 29 offices and £160bn in assets under management. It owns stakes in watch brand Breitling, six Nations rugby and the raC, the motoring organisation. Mackenzie’s windfall will add to the cash wealth of the financier, who reportedly hosts friends and family on a 170-foot superyacht called Grace and owns an 866-acre estate in Dorset as well as a collection of racing cars.

Jersey-based Mackenzie ( pictured), who worked at investment firm 3i before joining Citicorp in 1988, led perhaps its most high profile deal when it acquired a majority stake in Formula One in 2006. The deal propelled the chartered accountant and Dundee university graduate into the centre of one of the world’s most glamorous sporting organisations. CVC eventually sold F1 to american mass media giant Liberty Media, which is controlled by billionaire John Malone, in a deal valuing it at £6.5bn in 2016. In February this year, CVC announced that Mackenzie was stepping back from an active role at the company ‘ to focus on his private interests’. It followed a similar move by Koltes in 2022.

yesterday’s announcement was the latest step towards completing a long-awaited IPO for CVC. Previous bids to float have been abandoned twice in the past, in 2022 and 2023, due to market uncertainty.

since then, a string of companies have gone public in europe, taking advantage of recovering investor sentiment.

That contrasts with the London market with its cheaply-valued stocks being picked off by overseas predators.