CVC is exploring a bid to take security group Verisure private, just a year after rival buyout firm Hellman & Friedman took it public in one of Europe’s highest-profile IPOs.
Hellman & Friedman floated Verisure in Stockholm in October 2025 at a valuation of €13.7bn, but its shares are now trading 30 per cent below their IPO price. Hellman & Friedman still owns about 44 per cent of the group, making it by far the largest shareholder.
CVC’s interest in Verisure is at an early stage and there is no certainty of a deal, according to people familiar with the matter.
Verisure provides home alarm systems and was formed as a unit of Sweden’s Securitas group in 1988, though it is now based in Switzerland. Hellman & Friedman and Bain Capital bought it from private equity peer EQT in 2011 at a valuation of €2.3bn, with H&F buying out Bain in 2015.
Private equity groups have found it difficult to list their investments in recent years, with higher interest rates weighing on valuations and geopolitical volatility making it hard to price offerings. A shrinking public market dominated by passive investors has also meant fewer buyers for all but the largest IPOs.
A number of the portfolio companies that buyout firms have managed to float have performed poorly since their debuts, further damaging investor confidence in private equity-backed deals.
As well as Verisure, Cinven-backed travel marketplace HBX Group has also struggled. Cinven listed it at €11.50 a share last year but it currently trades at under €8.
EQT’s 2024 IPO of skincare and fillers company Galderma has been a notable exception, with the private equity firm’s exit this year taking the total proceeds for its fund and co-investors to $26bn.
Buyout firms have instead increasingly treated European listed companies as prey, looking to take advantage of the continent’s discounted valuations compared with the US.
Last year KKR took UK instruments group Spectris private in a £4.7bn deal after a bidding war with rival Advent. Permira and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board also completed their delisting of fund services group JTC for £2.7bn.
CVC, Hellman & Friedman and Verisure declined to comment.