CapVest Jumps Into PE Big Leagues With €10 Billion Stada Buyout

Europe’s largest leveraged buyout this year wasn’t done by a Wall Street giant like Blackstone Inc. or KKR & Co. Instead, it’s from a lesser-known British private equity firm that manages just €12 billion ($14 billion).

London-based CapVest Partners announced Monday it will buy control of German drugmaker Stada Arzneimittel AG in what’s by far its largest-ever purchase. The acquisition, which values Stada at around €10 billion, caps a few furious days of around-the-clock negotiations as CapVest raced to seal a deal with the drugmaker’s owners at Bain Capital and Cinven.

The transaction — first revealed by Bloomberg News ...