Investing in an Uncertain Market with CVC’s Lorne Somerville

**Howard Beber** (0:03)
Welcome back to Private Market Talks, a Proskauer podcast where we explore the world of private markets and speak with the people shaping the future of alternative investments. I'm your host, Howard Beber. Today, I'm joined by Lorne Somerville, managing partner at CVC Capital Partners, where he serves as co-head of North American Private Equity and co-head of the firm's Strategic Opportunities Platform. Lorne joined CVC in 2008, bringing a combination of investment banking and operating experience. Prior to CVC, Lorne worked for UBS, where he was joint global head of telecommunications and head of the European Communications Group. Earlier in his career, Lorne also held a senior role at Swisscom International, giving him direct operating exposure in the telecom sector. Lorne holds an MA in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from IMD Lausanne. For additional background, CVC Capital Partners itself is one of the largest global private market managers. Founded in 1981 as a spin out from Citicorp's venture capital arm, the firm has grown into a multi-strategy platform with approximately 205 billion euros in assets under management. It operates a broad global network of 29 offices with seven investment strategies across a range of asset classes, including private equity, credit, infrastructure, and secondaries.
CVC's private equity platform manages 114 billion euros in assets and comprises four strategies.
Europe and the Americas, Asia, strategic opportunities, and their catalyst strategy.
As with all our episodes, you can find a full transcript and additional resources at privatemarkettalks.com. And if you enjoyed the episode, drop us a line. We'd love to hear from you. And now my conversation with Lorne Somerville. Lorne, welcome to Private Market Talks. It's great to have you on the show.

**Lorne Somerville** (2:00)
Thank you, Howard. It's very nice to be here.

**Howard Beber** (2:03)
So let's start with some evolution of CVC and the US strategy. CVC has historically been obviously a very strong firm and brand in Europe. And you stepped into the role of co-head of North America Private Equity in early 2025
So how are you thinking about the opportunity set in the North American region?

**Lorne Somerville** (2:23)
Well, it's a fascinating opportunity here because what we're looking for in private equity, first and foremost, is change. We look for volatility, in fact. That's where we can make our mark. And the US, whilst having underlying growth, is faced with quite a lot of challenges, both on the up and the down. So if you combine that with the sheer size and uniformity of the market, I think it's a magnificent opportunity for a private equity fund like ours.

**Howard Beber** (2:52)
And what would you say the ambition is for the North American strategy over the next few years?

**Lorne Somerville** (2:58)
Well, North America is different for us than our traditional base in Europe. In Europe, we are top five in every market that we compete in. And we've got 29 offices around the world. We've got a very distinctive local approach where all of our offices are staffed by people who are local to that country. And we think that gives us a particular edge.
Now you may have picked up from my accent that I may not be local to this country, similar to my co-head, Kastrin Petty. And what we're trying to do here is bring our US business a little bit closer to our overall global CVC approach.
Now, underneath us, of course, are solely Americans with all sorts of variants and varieties across the United States. So we've kept that kind of local component. But when you are not top five in a market, by the amount of capital that you want to allocate into a market, you need a different approach. And one of the things that we were discussing is that in Europe, we're really the gorilla in every market that we compete in, or we're one of the few gorillas. In the US., our approach is more of a rifle shot, and by the type of companies, which are distinctive to the CDC way, something with a very clear business idea, backing great managers, and usually off-market and proprietary.

**Howard Beber** (4:24)
Thank you for that. That leads me to my next question. I think you've probably answered it, but just in case for the benefit of our audience, the question I think a lot of people have is, how does a firm like CVC compete in the US against mega funds that have long-standing local relationships?

**Lorne Somerville** (4:39)
Yeah, that's a great question, and it's one that if we didn't think we'd compete, we wouldn't be here. I mean, you mentioned a little bit of our history. When we bought ourselves out of Citicorp, there were actually exclusivity arrangements. We had exclusive domain in Europe. The Citicorp venture capital, as it was then, was exclusive in the US and we shared Asia, so we had a very long, deep-standing relationships in Asia. And then in 2007, those exclusivities lapsed and we each entered each other's markets. We entered the US., they came into Europe and renamed themselves Court Square.