The buyout firm that owned Formula One later bought an IPL team
CVC Capital Partners spent a decade as the controlling owner of Formula One before selling to Liberty Media in a deal worth $4.4 billion. The private equity firm then turned to other sports, taking a slice of Spanish football's broadcasting income and buying the Ahmedabad franchise in cricket's Indian Premier League for about $580 million.
The firm began inside Citicorp as its venture capital arm in 1981. In 1993 Michael Smith and his senior colleagues negotiated a spin-off from the bank and became independent, raising a first fund of $300 million, half from Citicorp. They shifted from venture capital to leveraged buyouts of mature companies, and by 2000 CVC was one of Europe's biggest private equity names. Its 2023 fund of €26 billion was the largest private equity fund ever raised.
Sport made it famous. Between late 2005 and early 2006 CVC gradually bought 63.4 percent of the Formula One Group, cutting its holding to 35.5 percent in 2012. Its stewardship was bitterly criticised by some team figures. The sale to John Malone's Liberty Media came in two stages across 2016 and 2017. In 2021 Spain's La Liga agreed a deal that finally gave CVC an 8.2 percent stake worth about €1.994 billion, entitling it to a share of broadcasting and sponsorship revenue for 50 years. That October it bought the IPL franchise now known as the Gujarat Titans.
Everyday brands have passed through its hands too. With Permira it bought Britain's motoring association The AA in 2004, and was accused in Parliament of asset stripping after borrowing heavily against it. It has owned stakes in the pet chain Petco, the Polish convenience retailer Żabka and, from 2021, most of Unilever's tea business, including Lipton, for £4.5 billion.
After postponing plans more than once, CVC listed on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange in April 2024, raising €2.3 billion. It ranked sixth among the world's largest private equity firms in a 2025 industry league table, with roughly €205 billion under management.
Source: CVC Capital Partners
