The private equity backer of controversial spyware provider NSO is close to having its future resolved following a bust-up between its founders.

Sky News has learnt that an advisory committee of Novalpina Capital’s limited partners (LPs), or investors, has reached a conclusion on which of its bosses should remain in charge.

City insiders said they anticipated that Stephen Peel, the most prominent of Novalpina’s founders, would continue at the helm of the fund.

An announcement about Novalpina’s future is expected in the coming weeks, they added.

Novalpina, which was set up just four years ago, has been embroiled in a dispute between Mr Peel and Novalpina’s other senior figures, Bastian Lueken and Stefan Kowski, for several months.

In March, Sky News reported sources as saying that the trio had been at loggerheads over agreeing a strategy for deploying new capital from the fund.

If Mr Peel is chosen by LPs to continue at the helm, Novalpina may be dissolved and reconstituted under a different name, according to industry sources.

Established to invest in so-called mid-market companies across Europe, Novalpina said at the time of its launch that its principals had more than 50 years of combined experience in private equity investing.

Mr Peel was a former partner at TPG, one of the world’s largest buyout firms, while Mr Kowski was a senior executive at Centerbridge Partners, and Mr Lueken led the European investment business at Platinum Equity.

Novalpina’s most prominent deal to date was the acquisition in 2019 of a stake in NSO Group, a cybersecurity company which has drawn controversy over the use of its technology.

Several months after the deal, Novalpina announced a new governance structure for NSO and pledged to align with the UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

That came just days after Mr Peel’s wife, Yana, resigned as chief executive of London’s Serpentine art gallery, saying that the controversy surrounding NSO’s ownership had prompted “misguided personal attacks on me and my family”.

Novalpina’s other deals have included Laboratoire XO, a pharmaceuticals company, and Olympic Entertainment Group, a gaming business.

Novalpina did not respond to a request for comment submitted through its website on Tuesday.

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