This is Rolly van Rappard, the big man behind stock market debutant CVC Capital Partners | RTL News

There are not many photos of him, he prefers to stay out of the spotlight. But Louis Rodolph Jules knight van Rappard, also known as Rolly van Rappard, has become a bit richer again with the IPO.

He wasn’t poor to begin with. Quote recently calculated his fortune at 1.5 billion euros, making him number 35 in the Quote 500 list of wealthy Dutch people.

CVC’s successful IPO gives him a few hundred million extra. First, the introductory price was increased from 13 to 14 euros. The price then shot up to more than 17 euros on the first day of trading. This gives Van Rappard a paper profit of 225 million euros.

Fast career

Shares in CVC Capital Partners, one of the largest investment companies in the world. That company was founded in 1981 as part of the American Citibank.

Van Rappard started there in 1989 and quickly made a career there. After four years, he and four others took over CVC. Van Rappard was director there and is now chairman of the Supervisory Board.

Yacht with crew

Not much is known about Van Rappard’s assets. According to Quote, he has houses in London and Aerdenhout. And according to the American Forbes, he is half owner of the yacht Blue II. A ship worth 50 million dollars (46 million euros). The interior of the Blue II was designed by Hoek Design Naval Architects from Edam.

The ship is 56 meters long, with 11 crew members and room for 12 guests. The Blue II won the Boat International ‘World Superyacht Award’ in 2021.

Noble family

Van Rappard was born in Curaçao. He studied law in Utrecht and obtained his master’s degree in economics from Columbia University in New York.

He comes from the noble Van Rappard family, which comes from Westphalia, Germany. The family ended up in the Netherlands at the end of the 18th century. Only later was he given the noble title of knight. That is the lowest title in the nobility.

Van Rappard’s father was director of the KNSM shipping company. Van Rappard’s grandfather was the castle guardian of Loevestein Castle, his grandmother was Elisabeth Baroness van Hardenbroek van Lockhorst. She was lady-in-waiting to Queen Juliana.

Jip and Janneke

Van Rappard is married to Françoise Wanninkhof. She is involved with Illustrated & Co, which recently bought the company that exploits the copyrights of Fiep Westendorp (known for, among other things, the drawings of Jip and Janneke).

Waninkhof is also ‘governor’ for the Holland Festival. She is also chair of the Brook Foundation, which is active in the areas of nature and nature conservation, children and culture.

Rijksmuseum

Van Rappard is known as a great art lover, Quote knows. As an anonymous donor, he is said to have donated 12.5 million euros to the Rijksmuseum last year.

Van Rappard is also said to be a director of the DQ Foundation, which aims to support the Rijksmuseum Fund Foundation. According to Quote, he and his wife are Patrons of the Rijksmuseum.

CVC: Douglas, Lipton and sports

CVC grew into a major international player under Van Rappard. CVC buys companies, reorganizes them and sells them at a profit. CVC often borrows heavily for acquisitions, meaning that relatively little of its own money is needed.

Well-known Dutch companies that CVC previously bought were Halfords, KwikFit, supermarket chain C1000 and Joop van den Ende’s Stage Entertainment. CVC is now best known for its interest in perfumery chain Douglas, which also recently went public. CVC also has shares in tea company Lipton and watchmaker Breitling.

The investor also has shares in companies that manage revenue from television rights and sponsorship deals for the football leagues in Spain and France and the Women’s Tennis Association. CVC previously owned the company behind Formula 1 races.

In total, CVC has 186 billion euros under management. There had been plans for an IPO twice before, but they were withdrawn. But three times is a charm.