Cinven is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 private equity

Private equity

Private equity, in finance, is an asset class consisting of equity securities in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange....

 firm founded in 1977 with offices in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, Frankfurt

Frankfurt

Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...

, Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

 and Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

. Currently, the company has raised four funds, with the last one signing up €6.5 billion. Cinven is solely focused on European acquisitions and buyouts, with investment coming from over 150 institutional investors from 23 countries.

Cinven’s funding base originally came solely from three UK pension funds (British Coal

British Coal

thumb|right|British Coal company logoThe British Coal Corporation was a nationalised corporation in the United Kingdom responsible for the extraction of coal...

, the Railway Industry

British Rail

British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...

 and Barclays Bank) who remain as important partners. Cinven has been reported to originally stand for Coal Investment Nominees' for Venture Capital.

Cinven invests in six sectors on an international basis: Business Services; Consumer; Financial Services; Healthcare; Industrials; and TMT.

Investments

Cinven is one of the largest and most influential private equity firms in Europe. Some of their recent acquisitions include:

• Avio — In 2006, Cinven purchased Avio from Carlyle and Finmeccanica for an enterprise value
  Enterprise value
  Enterprise value , Total enterprise value , or Firm value is an economic measure reflecting the market value of a whole business. It is a sum of claims of all the security-holders: debtholders, preferred shareholders, minority shareholders, common equity holders, and others...
  
   of €2.6 billion.

• Spire Healthcare
  Spire Healthcare
  Spire Healthcare is a large British healthcare organisation with 37 hospitals in the UK, and the second largest private hospital group in the UK. It was formed when private equity firm Cinven acquired Bupa Hospitals in 2007....
  
   (previously BUPA
  Bupa
  Bupa is a large British healthcare organisation, with bases on three continents and more than ten million customers in over 200 countries. It is a private healthcare company, in direct contrast to the UK's National Health Services, which are tax-funded healthcare systems and do not require private...
  
   Hospitals) — In June 2007, BUPA announced that it had agreed to sell its hospitals business, comprising 25 hospitals, to Cinven for £1.44 billion ($2.8 billion/€2.13 billion). Spire has since acquired the Classics Hospital Group for GBP 145 million, as well as a single site hospital in Gerrards Cross, England.

• Gondola Holdings — acquired in 2007 for €1.36 billion, Gondola is the market leader in the UK casual dining sector, with brands such as PizzaExpress http://www.pizzaexpress.com/, ASK, Zizzi
  Zizzi
  Zizzi is a chain of Italian restaurants found across the United Kingdom which is owned by Gondola Group, who also own Ask and PizzaExpress restaurants. There are currently 87 Zizzi restaurants in the UK. Many include a masonry oven, visible over the counter to the customers, where pizzas are...
  
   and BYRON.

• Amadeus
  Amadeus
  Amadeus is a play by Peter Shaffer.It is based on the lives of the composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, highly fictionalized.Amadeus was first performed in 1979...
  
   — in 2005 Cinven bought Amadeus, the global leader in distribution solutions for the travel and tourism industries, for €4.4 billion.

• SLV
  SLV
  SLV may refer to:*El Salvador*IATA code for Shimla Airport, India*Slovenian language*Satellite Launch Vehicle, an Indian space launcher*State Library of Victoria*iShares Silver Trust, an Exchange-traded fund with the New York Stock Exchange symbol SLV...
  
  - acquired in April 2011, SLV is a provider of residential and technical lighting products