International private equity firm, Cinven, announces the final close of its inaugural Strategic Financials Fund (‘SFF’) at €1.5 billion of total capital committed. The SFF builds on Cinven’s leading financial services investment platform in Europe with an investment strategy focused on areas where Cinven has developed significant investment expertise, such as life and non-life insurance and reinsurance, asset-backed speciality finance, wealth management, insurance distributors and other ‘capital light’ financial service providers.

The SFF is focused on investing in companies with long term track records of consistent growth and cash generation across a broad spectrum of the European financial services sector, drawing on Cinven’s extensive network of relationships, origination skills and expertise. The SFF has made three investments to date:

  • March 2021: Miller, a leading specialist insurance and (re)insurance broker, acquired in partnership with GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund.
  • April 2021: Compre, a specialist global consolidator of closed books of non-life insurance policies, acquired in partnership with British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, one of Canada’s largest institutional investors.
  • February 2022: International Financial Group Limited (‘IFGL’), a leading life insurance provider of cross-border, long-term savings products for internationally mobile clients (completion pending).

Cinven has one of the leading financial services investing franchises in Europe, having built its expertise over more than a decade of investing. In addition to the SFF investments, Cinven Funds’ other financial services investments include Viridium, a German specialist consolidator of closed life insurance books; True Potential, one of the fastest growing and most innovative financial services groups in the UK; NewDay, a leading UK consumer finance company; and Premium Credit, a leading UK provider of premium finance for commercial and retail insurance products. Previous financial services investments by the Cinven Funds include Guardian Financial Services, Partnership Assurance and Avolon.

Stuart McAlpine, Managing Partner of Cinven, said:

“For more than 30 years, Cinven has focused on building world class companies using its European focus and sector specialist expertise. We are delighted to have raised our inaugural Strategic Financials Fund and would like to thank Cinven’s long term investors for their continued support, and to welcome our new investors who have built conviction in the SFF’s investment strategy, the strength of the SFF team we have built, and Cinven’s unique capabilities in the financial services sector.”

Caspar Berendsen, Partner at Cinven who leads the Financial Services Sector team, added:

“The SFF draws on Cinven’s proven track record of investing in established European financial services businesses with long term track records of sustained growth and cash generation.  Across the separate investment mandates of Cinven’s flagship fund and the SFF, Cinven’s financial services franchise is now better positioned than ever to support great management teams in building businesses in the European financial services sector.”

Luigi Sbrozzi, Partner and co-head of the SFF, added:

“We are excited to hold the final close of the SFF which is uniquely positioned as one of the largest pools of capital solely dedicated to financial services in Europe. We are off to a strong start already, having signed three high quality SFF investments so far and we look forward to continuing to identify attractive future investment opportunities within our core focus areas of financial services.”