Updates share price paragraph 3, detail on investor demand paragraph 6
By Emma-Victoria Farr
AMSTERDAM, April 26 (Reuters) - Shares of private equity group CVC Capital Partners CVC.AS gained as much as 25% on their first day of trading in Amsterdam in what shapes up to be one of Europe's largest initial public offerings this year.
CVC shares opened at 17.34 euros ($18.61) after they were priced earlier on Friday at 14 euros - the midpoint of the announced range - which valued one of Europe's largest buyout firms at around 14 billion euros.
Shares were trading at 17.18 euros by 1300 GMT after rising as high as 17.55 euros per share shortly after opening.
The company said it would raise 2-2.3 billion euros from the deal, depending on whether over-allotment options were exercised. CVC said the offer was oversubscribed multiple times and had been increased to accommodate strong demand from institutional investors globally.
"We are very pleased to have received great support for our IPO from both our and existing shareholders," chief executive Rob Lucas said in a statement. "This is testament to the huge amount of hard work that has gone into building CVC over the last 40 years."
Investor demand came from mutual funds, sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds and big insurer pension funds split across Europe, the US and the Middle East, a person familiar with the process told Reuters.
The IPO is set to earn millions for some of the company's founders, while also helping CVC grow its assets beyond its 186 billion euros under management.
CVC had been considering an IPO for some time but abandoned a previous attempt due to volatile market conditions.
Europe has seen a string of companies go public recently, taking advantage of higher stock prices and improving investor sentiment.
However, issue performance has been mixed. Last month shares in skin care company Galderma soared on its market debut, while CVC-backed cosmetics retailer Douglas did less well trading below its issue price.
CVC founders Donald Mackenzie and Steve Koltes stand to reap substantial rewards from the IPO. Based on the issue price and without exercising the over allotment option, Mackenzie is due to cash in around 121.7 million euros through the sale of existing shares, Reuters calculations based on the issue prospectus suggest. Koltes could raise around 27.7 million euros.
The IPO was led by investment banks Goldman Sachs GS.N, JP Morgan JPM.N, and Morgan Stanley MS.N.
CVC is the latest European buyout group to go public, following in the footsteps of Bridgepoint BPTB.L and EQT EQTAB.ST.
Stockholm-listed EQT has seen its share price increase four-fold over five years from its IPO while assets under management also grew.
($1 = 0.9316 euros)
(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel, Bart Meijer, Emma-Victoria Farr and Anousha Sakoui, editing by Inti Landauro, Tomasz Janowski and Louise Heavens)
((tassilo.hummel@thomsonreuters.com ; Twitter handle: @tassilo_hummel;))