By Bruno Schick and Sam Williams

Cinven’s exit momentum is no accident

In a market where sponsor exits continue to lag deployments, the Cinven funds’ have emerged as a bright spot—delivering nearly €11 billion in proceeds since January 2024 and distributing close to 30% of NAV over the past year. That compares to industry average distributions of 11% of NAV in 2024 (as per Bain & Company), and reflects the strength of the Cinven funds’ portfolio and a disciplined, liquidity-focused investment approach, where exit planning is prioritised from day one.

Exit Planning Starts at Investment Origination

The Cinven funds’ portfolio is diversified, proprietary, and unique. Cinven’s sourcing model blends deep sector expertise with local coverage across key geographies, generating unique angles and primary deal flow. In the Eighth Cinven Fund, eight out of ten investments to date are primary or founder-led, with Cinven’s value creation levers driving average earnings growth of 27% over the past twelve months.

Exit optionality is the north star of Cinven’s value creation strategy. Cinven transforms businesses—enhancing industry position, growth, margins, and cash generation—tailoring them to the needs of prospective buyers and often unlocking premium exit multiples as a result. Deal teams maintain exit templates throughout the funds’ hold period, cultivating buyer interest and staying alert to windows of opportunity.

Equally, deal teams fall in love with their portfolio companies. That’s natural—and it’s why Cinven’s Portfolio Review Committee (PRC) steers the holistic post-deal exit-readiness agenda, optimising outcomes at the fund level. Annual “Super Days” are the PRC’s forum for strategic planning; “hold/sell” analysis is reviewed for every investment, and the efforts of Cinven’s highly experienced and specialised portfolio value creation experts are prioritised to situations with the greatest remaining transformation potential. The PRC also conducts regular lessons-learned reviews, refining M&A and IPO playbooks and sharing insights across internal forums and with management teams.

This disciplined approach—combined with the Cinven funds’ reputation as a responsible seller—has enabled successful exits across all modalities: strategic transactions, an IPO, and sponsor sales. Recent examples from September 2025 include the majority sale of STADA to CapVest (signed on 1 September – the largest European LBO of the year to date according to PitchBook), and the sale of NewDay’s consumer credit portfolio to KKR (signed 12 September).

The Strategic Premium

Since January 2024, the Cinven funds have closed five strategic exits, achieving a weighted average multiple on invested capital of nearly 3x. These exits are often dubbed the “Holy Grail” of private equity, given the perception that strategic buyers may be willing to pay a premium for synergies, access to new technology or markets, or cross-selling opportunities.

So, what’s the secret sauce?

Start Early: Arcaplanet & Fressnapf

Cinven enjoys confidential and intimate dialogues with founders, business owners, and corporates on the development potential of their businesses. Cinven’s relationship with Fressnapf founder Torsten Toeller is an excellent example, having been established nearly 20 years ago. While the Cinven funds invested in Arcaplanet in 2022, its strategic sale to Fressnapf in 2024 was a long time in the making.

Arcaplanet was an industry leader in Italy and a natural target for Fressnapf’s investment across southern Europe. The Cinven funds partnered with Torsten Toeller to acquire Arcaplanet and combine it with Fressnapf’s Italian operations. Under Cinven’s stewardship, in less than three years Arcaplanet strengthened its position as a leading pet care operator in Europe, with best-in-class omnichannel customer proposition and attractive margins, also delivered through the synergies from the combination with Fressnapf’s Italian business. In 2024 Torsten Toeller decided to acquire 100% of Arcaplanet, whilst inviting the Cinven funds to invest in the resulting group, motivated by the opportunity to access Cinven’s transformation expertise to drive future performance.

Innovate and Invest to Transform “Good to Great”: Viridium & Nitel

At Viridium, Cinven identified the opportunity to drive consolidation of the highly fragmented German life insurance sector in 2014, invest heavily in IT and scale via a buy-and-build strategy—developing Viridium into one of the largest German life insurance companies, with approximately 3.4 million policies and €67 billion of assets under management. The scaled platform was attractive to leading insurers and to asset management consolidators. The Cinven funds ultimately sold the business in March 2025 to a consortium comprising Allianz, BlackRock, T&D Holdings, Generali, Santander, and PG3.

It’s a similar story for next-generation technology provider Nitel. Cinven was the company’s first private equity investor—a role that often precedes another round of financial sponsorship after four to five years. Instead, Cinven achieved a successful exit two years ahead of schedule by building Nitel into an asset of strategic value to US telecoms and media leaders such as Comcast. Alongside management, Cinven enhanced Nitel’s technology (particularly its network monitoring software), strengthened its channel partner relationships, and expanded a loyal, sophisticated user base with a high Net Promoter Score. Comcast ultimately acquired Nitel for these strategic credentials.

Value Creation Through Foresight, Ambition, and Flexibility: MasOrange

Businesses in the Cinven funds’ current portfolio continue to hit key strategic milestones that pave the way for exit.

At MasOrange, Cinven established one of Europe’s largest and most penetrated FiberCos, in partnership with Vodafone Spain and GIC. The fibre network is set to deliver substantial advantages for customers of both operators, and transaction proceeds were utilised by MasOrange to reduce debt and leverage – an important enabler of our planned exit.

Success Breeds Success

The Cinven funds’ strong exit momentum reflects the strength of the Cinven platform: differentiated sourcing, proven alpha value creation, and a robust PRC-led exit methodology.

As is typically the case, it’s about experience and reputation. Success breeds success, and with multiple active strategic dialogues ongoing, the Cinven funds’ are well-positioned to maintain their strong momentum in the years to come.