CAA Sells Majority Stake to Funding Agency Led By Luxurious Mogul François-Henri Pinault

CAA has a brand new majority proprietor.

The expertise company big led by Bryan Lourd, Kevin Huvane and Richard Lovett has offered a majority stake to Artémis, the funding agency managed by François-Henri Pinault, the CEO of the style agency Kering, and the billionaire scion of a French luxurious items fortune.

CAA’s management workforce of Bryan Lourd, Kevin Huvane, and Richard Lovett will stay in place, with all three males signing “long-term commitments to proceed main the company.” Lourd is anticipated to be named CEO of the corporate below its new possession. Jim Burtson will stay president.

CAA has been majority owned by TPG since 2014 (the non-public fairness agency first took a 35 p.c stake within the firm in 2010). The sale is a giant exit for TPG, which valued the expertise company at $1.1 billion when it acquired its majority stake.

Phrases of the deal weren’t disclosed, although CAA’s present proprietor TPG was mentioned to be searching for a valuation of about $7 billion. The sale comes only one 12 months after CAA reshaped the expertise company panorama by buying ICM. The mixed CAA and ICM was valued on the time at $5 billion.

Artémis might be buying TPG’s stake within the firm, with Singapore-based world funding agency Temasek remaining a minority proprietor, and CMC Capital remaining a strategic companion. (Each Temasek and CMC Capital invested in CAA in 2017.)

Pinault (whose spouse Salma Hayek Pinault is a CAA consumer), will maintain the company privately held. The opposite holdings of Artémis embody Kering, the posh items group that owns Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, and Alexander McQueen; the public sale home Christie’s, a collection of wine estates, and a up to date artwork assortment.

The bulk stake sale of CAA marks the most important acquisition in Hollywood’s illustration area since WME unveiled a $2.4 billion bid for the fashion-focused IMG in 2013, a 12 months after non-public fairness agency Silver Lake Companions invested within the Ari Emanuel-run company.

CAA’s rivals, nonetheless, haven’t been standing pat. Fellow “Huge Three” company UTA offered an fairness stake to Investcorp and the Public Sector Pension Funding Board in 2018 and nabbed additional non-public fairness funding in 2022 to gasoline vital development, together with a $125 million deal for strategic advisory agency MediaLink and the addition of U.Ok. literary and expertise Company Curtis Brown Group and govt search and consulting agency James & Co.

And WME guardian Endeavor, now a publicly traded firm, is seeking to steer the closing of a megadeal of combined martial arts promotion UFC and wrestling big WWE this month because it expands its footprint within the sports activities and leisure area outdoors of illustration.

CAA’s new house owners carry the company even nearer to the posh area the place Pinault has a big presence. “Artémis is a strategic investor of the very best order, with world attain and assets throughout numerous areas of our shoppers’ pursuits, a deeply subtle understanding of world manufacturers and methods to help their development, and a ardour for creativity and innovation that matches ours and that of our shoppers.  François-Henri Pinault and his outstanding workforce, led by Héloïse Temple-Boyer and Alban Greget, share our imaginative and prescient for a way forward for limitless new alternatives,” mentioned CAA’s Lourd, Lovett, Huvane and Burtson in a joint assertion. “We’re enormously grateful to TPG for his or her strategic experience, invaluable help, and friendship over 13 years. We loved great development and success collectively and stay up for persevering with to collaborate on initiatives forward.”

“As a frontrunner in its subject with an impressive administration workforce, a crystal-clear deal with offering world-class service to world-class shoppers and an amazing monitor report of development, CAA has all of the related traits to be a part of the Artémis household, including elevated variety, each when it comes to geographical footprint and enterprise actions, to our different belongings,” added Pinault. “CAA’s distinctive perception, relationships, and entry throughout key sectors, mixed with their extensively regarded stage of collaboration and innovation, provides the corporate a formidable function in driving world alternatives for its various and culture-defining shoppers.  We stay up for supporting the company’s very shiny path forward.”