CVC Capital Partners, through Rioja Acquisition, sold its remaining 13.8% stake in Spain’s Naturgy Energy Group in May 2026. The exit covered 133.85 million shares, including 107.47 million shares placed through an accelerated bookbuild at EUR 28.55 per share, raising about EUR 3.07 billion in cash. Naturgy is a listed Spanish utility with 7.7 GW of installed renewable capacity as of June 2025.

The market shift is clear. Europe utility M&A is moving toward liquidity events in operational, listed platforms rather than only project-level renewable acquisitions. CVC’s exit follows GIP’s full disposal of its 11.4% Naturgy stake in March 2026, when Criteria Caixa increased its holding to 28.5%.

This is not early-stage development risk. Naturgy offers operational utility exposure, regulated infrastructure, gas, power supply, and renewable capacity. The buyer pool was institutional, while the seller was PE exiting a mature position entered in 2018.

Enerdatics tracked a similar European pattern in Q3 2025, when PE-led acquisitions accounted for 45% of regional deal volume and investors favored operational, late-stage, and grid-connected assets over riskier development pipelines.

The commercial reason is capital recycling. PE funds are monetizing mature utility stakes at scale, while public-market investors gain exposure to dividend-paying infrastructure with renewable growth optionality.

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