Looking Over the Horizon w/ CVC's Rob Lucas

**Hugh MacArthur** (0:04)
Previously on Dry Powder, Rob Lucas, CEO of CVC, shared what Mountaineering has taught him about investing, from building teams that perform under pressure to planning for the unexpected. Today on the show, we'll turn that lens toward the future of private equity.
I'll ask Rob how CVC is navigating one of the toughest fundraising markets in decades and why performance and trust remain the bedrock of the LPGP model. We'll also discuss CVC's firm-wide embrace of AI.

**Rob Lucas** (0:30)
I use it every day. I have a Monday morning meeting where we have all the investment teams across the globe on the call.
I make it clear to everybody that we do monitor usage and we want everybody to be using it.

**Hugh MacArthur** (0:46)
Finally, Rob will explain why he believes Europe remains one of the world's most compelling markets for generating buyout alpha.

**Rob Lucas** (0:52)
It's the very complexity, it's the level of bureaucracy that mean that people look at the macro in a less positive way, which actually plays so well to private equity. We can just bring so much to the show.

**Hugh MacArthur** (1:06)
I'm Hugh MacArthur, Chairman of Bain's Global Private Equity Practice, and this is Dry Powder.
Rob, let's shift gears and talk a little bit about the future. I'm often asked to comment on the future in my role and I always protest that my crystal ball is very clouded and I'm sure yours is much clearer than mine. So I'd like to start by asking you how you're navigating the current fundraising environment, especially in the buyout world where things have been pretty tough over the last couple of years.

**Rob Lucas** (1:40)
Yes. From a fundraising perspective, we have raised over 23 billion euros over the last 12 months to Q1 2026
That's linked very closely to another statistic which is over the last five years, through all of this uncertainty, all this volatility, we have realized and returns to our investors over 50 billion euros of capital and a four times multiple of money in the 29 percent IRR.
So the reason I mentioned that in relation to the fundraising is because I really do think that throughout, but particularly at this moment in time, the ability to raise funds is very, very closely linked to the ability to make realizations and return capital. And not just because that's returning capital to our LPs, that's very, very important. Of course, there is a sort of recirculation aspect of that. But it's also within our industry, as I mentioned earlier, it's a long term industry. The other wonderful thing about it is that it's very transparent. It's cash on cash.
The funds have a start, they have a finish. And so actually tracking performance is very straightforward over time. And so our LPs, as you know, and you help them a lot in it, and you help the industry a lot in it. But the level of analysis that is done, the level of understanding is very, very deep indeed. And again, that's a great thing, because it gives everybody in the industry the confidence that if they ultimately do perform, that will be very transparent. They'll be recognized by the LPs, and that will be rewarded by the ability to continue to raise funds when needed. And our recent catalyst fundraising that we've done was an illustration of that. We set out looking to raise perhaps about 1.75 billion, something of that sort. We've ended up over 3 billion. We've raised the hard cap about 3 times during that fundraising. And that's indicative of the fact that if there is a track record and a level of trust there amongst the LPs, then there is capital there available and funds can be raised. But I think it all comes back to that trust. And I do think over the last few years, trust has been wobbled somewhat within the industry. But of course, this always happens. Every time we go through a dislocation or a period of volatility, whether it was the 2000.com bust, whether it was the later 2000s GFC, whether it's this period of time, there is always a flight to quality from LPs. The LPGP model is a very, very powerful, very strong, very long established model. But it does go through cycles. And at this point in the cycle, there is a gravitation towards GPs that the LPs really know, really trust to deliver for them and who have delivered for them over time.

**Hugh MacArthur** (4:55)
Absolutely. And I think the characterization of the current fundraising environment as wobbled, quote unquote, is a very fit one and a good one. And one of those wobbles, depending on how you view it, is the debate around private wealth and its importance to the industry going forward. Obviously, private wealth is half of the world's total wealth. It has very little exposure to private assets compared to institutional wealth. What is your view of this debate that LPs and some GPs are having around private wealth? And how does that fit into CVC's overall platform and thinking for the future?