Private equity giant CVC saw activity pick up in the first half of the year, rebounding from a quiet 2023 as money finally started flowing into investments.

The owner of the Six Nations beat expectations with assets under management of €127.5 billion, two percent higher than analysts had expected, the company said in a half-year update today.

Gross inflows were particularly impressive at EUR 38.3 billion, compared to the expected EUR 33.9 billion, mainly due to the activation of the main funds in May.

The company’s share price rose by more than five percent on the Amsterdam stock exchange after the good results were announced. This brings the company close to the highest level since its IPO in April.

CVC deployment recovered in the first half of the year to EUR 13.4 billion, up 63 percent from the first half of 2023 and almost equal to the total amount deployed for the entire year.

Realisation figures were similar, at €9.4bn in the first half of 2024, compared to €4.5bn in the first half of last year and €6.1bn for the year as a whole. The vast majority of this, 89 per cent, came from private equity, driven by an increase in corporate and sponsor M&A.

The infrastructure rollout has been “highly selective”, but key funds are now 55-65 percent deployed and CVC still expects the next generation to launch in the first half of 2025, with a total target size of €8 billion.

“Despite the ongoing macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty, we are pleased with the recovery in deployment and realization activities and the continued resilient performance across our portfolio,” said Rob Lucas, CEO of CVC.

“Furthermore, we are pleased to have completed our acquisition of CVC DIF and the acquisition of the final stake in CVC Secondary Partners. Overall, we are encouraged by our H1 performance and believe this is a good start to achieving our full year 2024 targets,” he added.