CVC's Søren Vestergaard-Poulsen on superiority of the PE ownership model

Søren Vestergaard-Poulsen was the guest of our 12th edition of the Deal Talk series, in which Moonfare’s CEO and founder, Steffen Pauls, talks to some of the world’s most prominent names in private equity dealmaking.

Søren, who joined CVC in 1998, is a managing partner and co-chairs CVC's private equity board and oversees private equity activities in Greece and the Nordics. He plays a pivotal role in managing a firm with 25 local offices and €161 billion of assets under management.

In their conversation, Steffen and Søren discussed a wide range of topics, from CVC’s approach to sustainability to its distinct organisational culture. Here are some of the highlights:

CVC’s investment playbook
“We’re trying to find investments that are robust and where we have a clear value creation program to make these businesses better. If we can do that, we’re more than likely to make a good investment.”

The superiority of the PE ownership model
“The alignment of interest with management, the long-term approach to value creation, and the drive from the board level to create value are much better in private equity than in any other ownership model. Compared to when I joined, not much has changed either. It continues to be a superior ownership model and will stay that way in the years to come.”

Immediate outlook
“I think we’ll see a pick-up in 2024. We are already seeing the divergence in price expectations between buyers and sellers narrowing. And in terms of financing, banks are coming back to the market. We’re starting to see improvements.”

What you need for success in private equity
“It comes down to whether managers making investments know what they’re doing. If you are a sector fund, you need deep expertise in the sector. If you are a generalist fund, you need to be able to source the right deals and generate the value creation plan again and again.”

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