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European private equity firm CVC is set to buy a majority stake in Dutch infrastructure investor DIF Capital Partners in a deal worth around €1bn in cash and shares, according to four people with direct knowledge of the matter.
The transaction, which will be announced as soon as Tuesday, is intended as a means to help CVC expand its range of investment strategies ahead of an expected initial public offering.
The decision to acquire DIF comes as the largest private equity houses are pushing into other asset classes, including private credit and infrastructure. Founded in 2005, DIF manages €16bn in assets and employs more than 200 professionals across 11 offices, according to its website. The infrastructure firm invests across Europe, North America and Australia.
CVC’s biggest rivals in traditional buyouts, such as Blackstone and Apollo, are now diversified asset managers racing to increase the size of each of their investment strategies and deliver fee income streams to stock market investors.
Infrastructure has proved a particularly lucrative area for some of CVC’s peers, including EQT, KKR and Brookfield, which have been able to raise a succession of ever larger funds to invest in these types of deal.
The deal is also a signal of CVC’s growing ambitions, coming weeks after the firm raised €26bn for the largest buyout fund in history. In recent years CVC has also expanded into the market for second-hand fund stakes through its acquisition of Glendower Capital.
CVC has also been aggressively expanding its credit business, which provides financing for leveraged buyouts, among other things.
The Financial Times reported last month that CVC had revived plans for a multibillion-euro stock market listing that could take place before the end of the year. The firm had previously put plans to go public on hold as market conditions deteriorated following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Bloomberg News earlier reported on the talks with DIF without a price. CVC declined to comment, while DIF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
JPMorgan is advising CVC on the deal, while DIF is advised by Morgan Stanley, according to three people involved.
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