CVC Capital Partners' Profit Surge Drives Share Increase
By Alban Kacher and Mateusz Rabiega
(Reuters) -Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners reported stronger than expected annual profit on Thursday, supported by a jump in management fees.
CVC, whose 2.3 billion euro initial public offering marked one of the biggest debuts in Europe last year, reported a 36% rise in its adjusted after-tax profit to 830 million euros ($903.79 million) in 2024, beating the average of 748 million euros expected by analysts polled by the company.
Operating costs came in higher than expected in the second half of the year, but not enough to offset the higher than anticipated revenue, ING analysts said in a note to investors, pointing to a significant beat in the company’s first year on the bourse.
The stock had gained 3.3% around 1036 GMT, narrowing its year-to-date losses by more than 3%.
Management fees for the year jumped 23% to 1.33 billion euros, the group said, adding it expected further "strong" growth of earnings from management fees in 2025.
"Whilst the economic and geopolitical environment remains uncertain, our experience shows that these conditions can provide some of our most attractive investment opportunities," CEO Robert Lucas said in a statement.
CVC's realisations, or sales of investments in portfolio companies, more than doubled year-on-year to 13.1 billion euros, up 114% compared with 2023 levels.
The group expects realisations in 2025 at, or slightly above, 2024 levels.
"The realisations are clearly up very materially over 2023, but (...) we are still below our long term average level of realisation," Lucas said in a call with journalists.
CVC recommended a dividend of 21 euro cents per share for the second half of the year, translating to a total of 225 million euros distributed to shareholders.
Paris-listed peer Amundi also reported a record adjusted net profit last month, up 13% year-on-year to 1.38 billion euros.
($1 = 0.9184 euros)
(Reporting by Mateusz Rabiega and Alban Kacher in Gdansk, Editing by Louise Heavens, Tomasz Janowski and Alex Richardson)
