CVC Sells Further $500 Million Formula One Stake to Waddell & Reed

   By Amy Or 
 

NEW YORK--Private-equity firm CVC Capital Partners said it has sold a $500 million stake in Formula One Group to Waddell & Reed Financial Inc. (WDR) and invested in Hong Kong-listed Chinese shoe company C.banner International Holdings Ltd. (1028.HK).

In the Formula One transaction, the stake, sold in a private placement, valued the motor-sport franchise at an enterprise value of $9.1 billion, the firm said in a statement issued Friday.

The deal, which increased Waddell & Reed Financial's stake to 20.9%, came as choppy markets hit equity fundraising and led to a delay in Formula One's planned $2.5 billion initial public offering in Singapore. Bankers on the IPO had planned for a mid-June listing but may consider reviving the deal later this year, people familiar with the situation said last week.

Waddell & Reed Financial was part of an institutional investor group that invested $1.6 billion for an aggregate 21% in Formula One last month. The other two investors were Norway's sovereign-wealth fund, Norges Bank Investment Management, and the world's largest money manager, BlackRock Inc. (BLK).

CVC's holding in Formula One fell to about 35.5% from 63% before the two recent deals.

Separately, CVC invested in C.banner along with China Consumer Capital Partners Ltd. and MouseeDragon LP, and has also nominated a partner with its Asian-Pacific unit, Ho Chi Kit, to the shoe maker's board.

In a regulatory filing, C.banner said CVC bought 138.6 million yuan ($21.8 million) worth of convertible bonds and 294.5 million Hong Kong dollars ($38.0 million) in exchangeable bonds. The firm said in a separate release that it also invested in C.banner through secondary shares, but didn't specify the amount.

"C.banner is a leading player in the fast-growing ladies' footwear market in China with a strong and stable management team," said Francis Leung, CVC's Greater China chairman and managing partner.

C.banner is the second-largest shoe company in the mid-to-premium women's footwear market in China with a 7.4% market share.

CVC, which has raised $44 billion in funds, said it has identified a number of value-creation initiatives to further improve C.banner's business and will work closely with management to execute the business plan.

CVC owns more than 60 companies world-wide, which generate more than $127 billion in revenue, it said.

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