CVC is acquiring a majority stake in Netherlands-based infrastructure manager DIF Capital Partners, and committing to buy the €16 billion ($17 billion) firm’s remaining shares over time.
The move creates a global private markets manager with seven complementary strategies and approximately €177 billion of total assets under management.
“Expanding into infrastructure is a logical next step for us, given the long-term secular growth trends in infrastructure and its adjacency to our existing strategies,” said CVC Chair and Co-Founder Rolly van Rappard. “We have known the DIF team for several years, and we are delighted to partner with one of the top pure-play global infrastructure managers, with an impressive track record of performance and growth.”
For DIF it expands its business that already employs a team of over 225 professionals across 11 offices and operating two different investment strategies that are core/build-to-core funds and the core-plus funds. Besides its Amsterdam headquarters, DIF has offices in Frankfurt, Helsinki, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, New York, Paris, Santiago, Sydney and Toronto.
Founded in 2005, DIF invests in mid-market infrastructure investments primarily in Europe, North America and Australia. The group will continue to be led by its current CEO and partners and will continue to operate under its DIF brand.
DIF’s business model and culture are deeply aligned with CVC’s local model, and the firm’s new infrastructure platform will prove highly complementary to the firm’s private equity, secondary and credit strategies, said Rob Lucas managing partner at CVC.
“We are delighted to be teaming up with CVC, which is a natural step in the evolution of DIF and, together with my Partners, I look forward to leading DIF in this next phase of growth,” said Wim Blaasse, CEO and managing partner at DIF. “We have known the CVC team for many years, we have been very impressed by everything they have built and we are excited about becoming part of the CVC group. This transaction enables us to benefit from CVC’s global platform, scale and investor relationships, and to double down on important infrastructure sectors like Energy Transition and Digitalisation while retaining independence over our investment decisions.”
The transaction is expected to close in either the fourth quarter of this year or the first quarter of 2024. The Dutch works council of DIF has been informed and positively advised on the transaction. Advisers to CVC in this transaction included J.P. Morgan. DIF’s advisers included, among others, Morgan Stanley & Co., Loyens & Loeff, PwC and De Brauw.
