Norwegian oil and gas producer Vår Energi held the largest PE-backed liquidity event in the first half of 2022. Its €6.9 billion IPO (about $7.02 billion) developed against a backdrop of faltering PE exit activity.
Overall European exit value totaled €157.8 billion across 739 deals, representing a 25.3% year-over-year decline in exit value.
Vår Energi—previously backed by energy giant Eni and private equity firm HitecVision—was an outlier given that IPO activity had reduced to a trickle amid volatile market conditions. It was also the only energy-related deal among the 10 largest PE exits by value in the region.
M&A deals are well represented among the top exits as corporate buyout arms, flush with cash after more than a decade of loose monetary policy, looked to PE portfolios to fuel inorganic expansion. Among them are Italian payments company Nexi’s $4 billion acquisition of peer SIA from CDP Equity. Half the deals among Europe’s 10 largest exits were in the IT or financial services sectors.
There were also some notable secondary deals, including the sale of wealth management firm True Potential to Cinven, which represented a full exit for FTV Capital.
Featured image by Christian Guiton/Getty Images
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