UK-based private equity firm CVC Capital Partners Ltd. agreed Wednesday to acquire Italian data company Cerved Group SpA from its private equity owners Bain Capital, LLC and Clessidra SGR S.p.A. for 1.13 billion euros. The completion of the deal is subject to customary competition clearances.
"I am excited to work with CVC in the next phase of the development of Cerved. Our plan is to continue pursuing the growth of the business both organically and through acquisitions consistently with what we have done in the past few years. This is in line with our strategy of improving quality of services and of innovating our offer to always better serve our customers in this mission critical area," Cerved CEO Gianandrea De Bernardis said in a statement.
Bain Capital is one of the world's leading private investment firms with about $66 billion in assets under management, while Clessidra is the largest independent Italian private equity firm.
Milan-based Cerved is Italy's leading provider of business credit information to over 30,000 clients, including 90 percent of Italian banks and over 80 percent of Italy's top 1,000 companies.
Cerved Group was formed in 2009 by its private equity owners by acquiring non-core assets from a group of Italian banks. The group is made up of Cerved BI, Lince, Centrale dei Bilanci, Databank, Finservice, Jupiter e Consit.
Cerved, a corporate intelligence and rating agency, generated revenues of 292 million euros in 2012.
Cerved has the most comprehensive database of corporate information in Italy, including corporate and financial details, payment history, customer and supplier relationships, and proprietary information sourced through its own network of interviewers.
Cerved has transitioned itself from a bank-owned captive provider of credit information into an independent leader across the banking and corporate markets over the years.
Luxembourg-based CVC Capital is said to have pipped European private equity giants Permira Advisers LLP and BC Partners Ltd. to win the deal.
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