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Private Equity's $12 Billion Self-Dealing Problem

Reported by Bloomberg
Oct 20, 2026· 2 min read
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Key Takeaways
  • • CVC Capital Partners' Fund VII holds a 47% stake in Milan-listed drugmaker Recordati SpA, acquired through a 2018 deal with the founding family.
  • • Despite solid investment performance, CVC has struggled to achieve a clean exit from the position.
  • • Sale talks involving Recordati reportedly took place in 2024, according to Bloomberg News, but no formal transaction was completed.
  • • The case illustrates a broader private equity practice of selling maturing assets to other buyout funds, often managed by the same firm, which can raise self-dealing concerns.
Summary
The private equity industry often resolves difficulties in exiting mature assets by selling them to another buyout fund, frequently one run by the same firm. According to Bloomberg, the Recordati SpA situation shows that this approach can become complicated. European buyout firm CVC Capital Partners Plc is currently navigating such a challenge.

CVC's Fund VII holds a 47% stake in Recordati, the Milan-listed drugmaker, following a transaction with the founding family in 2018. The investment has performed well enough, but a clean exit has proved elusive. Bloomberg News reported that there were sale talks in 2024, though no formal transaction materialized.

The Recordati case is presented by Bloomberg as an illustration of the self-dealing problem facing private equity, in which general partners sell assets between their own funds. The article's details on the current status of any exit process are limited in the available source material.

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Sources

1 outlet

AlphaMaven summarised this story from the reporting below. Each link opens the original article.

Bloomberg Private Equity's $12 Billion Self-Dealing Problem