The amount of money invested in the four largest venture capital megadeals in Spain surpassed €4bn in equity as of the end of September, according to Capital & Corporate.
The figure, alongside the 22 large operations that reached €100M by September, confirm the interest of international investors in Spain’s private capital sector.
Capital & Corporate (C&C) is the leading information group on private capital and mergers and acquisitions in Spain.
The greatest investment deal has been Carlyle’s acquisition of a 37% stake in Cepsa from Mubadala. The transaction, announced last April, valued the energy company at about €10.9bn, including debt.
Bridgepoint’s reinvestment in Dorna Sports, valued at more than €2bn, stood out in second place. “After 13 years as a reference partner, Bridgepoint bought back the sports rights manager by selling it to himself and injecting more than €1bn in the company. The purchase and sale between its own funds has allowed Bridgepoint to continue holding the asset in its portfolio,” said C&C.
The third position is for PAI Partners, which last July completed the purchase of the catering company Áreas from the French group Elior for €1.54bn, returning the headquarters of the company back to Barcelona.
In the fourth place, stands out the takeover of the Spanish private university Universidad Alfonso X El Sabio by CVC, which has valued the company at almost €1bn (about 14x ebitda). The other major private equity investment in education this year was made by the British company Permira, which bought Laureate International Universities in Spain and Portugal (European University), injecting €400M of equity into the company, valued at €750M.
According to C&C, figures point to another year of maximums exceeding €6bn of investment in private capital in Spain despite the global uncertainty and the perception that a market correction is approaching.
Source: Investment Europe