The European financial investor CVC Capital Partners has made a brilliant stock market debut.

The first price for the shares on the Amsterdam stock exchange was 17.34 euros on Friday, later rising to 18 euros. This is more than a quarter higher than the issue price, which CVC had set at 14 euros - in the middle of a price range that extended to 15 euros. The IPO of the investment company, which owns a majority stake in the Douglas perfumery chain and sports betting provider Tipico, among others, will thus raise between 2.0 and 2.3 billion euros - depending on whether the placement reserve is allocated. The majority of this will go to existing shareholders, including co-founders Steve Koltes and Donald Mackenzie.

The issue was increased due to high demand. It is likely to be one of the largest new issues in Europe this year. CVC was valued at a total of 14 billion euros at the issue price.

The investment company manages 186 billion euros and only last year launched the world's largest private equity fund at the time. As the traditional business of buying and selling companies is becoming more difficult, CVC - like many other financial investors - wants to diversify and invest in infrastructure projects or loans, for example. CVC CEO Rob Lucas said that the support of the investors was "proof of the hard work that has gone into building and expanding CVC over 40 years". He expects the stock market listing to provide new impetus for internal growth, but also opportunities for acquisitions. According to Reuters calculations, co-founder Mackenzie alone will receive 121.7 million euros and Koltes 27.7 million euros.

In recent years, more and more financial investors have pushed their way onto the stock market; in Europe, EQT from Sweden and the British company Bridgepoint were among those who took the plunge. EQT shares have quadrupled in value in five years. The US technology investor General Atlantic is also reportedly harboring stock market plans for New York.

CVC previously had its legal domicile in Luxembourg, but is mainly managed from the UK. In the course of the IPO, the headquarters will be relocated to the Channel Island of Jersey.

In Germany, former Goldman Sachs investment banker Alex Dibelius is the best-known face of CVC. In this country, the investor is not only the majority shareholder of Douglas, whose IPO flopped in March. Douglas shares are 18 percent below the issue price. CVC also holds a stake in fuel card provider DKV Mobility, which also has IPO plans, and in the former Bosch packaging division Syntegon. The most recent acquisition is Sunday Natural, a provider of nutritional supplements.

(Report by Tassilo Hummel, Bart Meijer and Emma-Victoria Farr. Written by Alexander Hübner, edited by Olaf Brenner. If you have any queries, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)