Permira has agreed to take a stake in CDP, the world's largest environmental disclosure system, marking the private equity firm's first investment from its Energy Transition strategy. The deal separates CDP into two entities: a commercial arm providing environmental data services and a newly formed CDP Foundation that will set scientific principles for disclosure methodology.

Under the structure, the commercial CDP will continue serving companies globally while receiving funding for people, technology, and product development. Importantly, this stops short of an outright sale. The Foundation retains shareholder status and board representation, maintaining its stake in the platform it created. CDP runs what it calls the world's most comprehensive environmental dataset, increasingly treated as essential for risk assessment by investors and corporate buyers.

For Permira, CDP represents critical data infrastructure as environmental risk reshapes supply chains and investment decisions. The firm manages roughly €90bn of committed capital and launched its dedicated Energy Transition strategy to back companies across the sector's value chains. CDP becomes the first deployment from that effort.

Completion is expected within six months pending regulatory approvals, including Charity Commission clearance. CDP's CEO Sherry Madera said the partnership charts a clear future path, while the Foundation focuses on translating frontier environmental science into disclosure methods. The 2026 disclosure cycle will proceed as planned.