South Beauty

South Beauty (俏江南) is a Chinese restaurant company that was acquired by global private-equity firm CVC Capital Partners in 2014 for $280 million, giving CVC an 82.7% stake . The deal later became the center of a decade-long commercial dispute involving cross-border M&A traps, leveraged-buyout techniques, and the piercing of a family trust that left founder Zhang Lan suddenly debt-ridden . CVC structured the acquisition through a holding company that fully owned a shell company, which in turn held 100% of South Beauty's equity . The saga was detailed in a 2025 暗涌Waves piece that examined how the case became one of the flashpoints in Zhang Lan's later pivot to live-streaming e-commerce .