|
|
|
|
|
Brookfield Sees Deals Ahead | TPG Rides a Wave of Realizations
|
|
|
|
|
|
Good Day! With earnings season drawing to a close, our Luis Garcia reports on the outlook from Brookfield Asset Management and our Chris Cumming details TPG's expectations for further expansion. Leaders of both firms are optimistic about what the year holds as it unfolds. Meanwhile The Wall Street Journal reports that U.S. corporate profits have so far outperformed expectations, rising 5.2% based on S&P 500 member reports cited by FactSet. So that optimism appears to be well-founded.
We have these and many other reports on dealmaking, fundraising, people moves and more collected, summarized and linked for you below, so please jump in...
|
|
|
|
|
|
Brookfield Asset Management’s leaders say they expect deals to speed up in the coming months as markets stabilize and investor risk appetite grows. PHOTO: GABBY JONES / BLOOMBERG NEWS
|
|
|
|
Brookfield Asset Management is betting a more favorable market will create an opportunity for the firm to deploy the $106 billion in available capital it has amassed while helping it sell businesses in its portfolio, Luis Garcia reports for WSJ Pro Private Equity. “Market sentiment has been [improving], liquidity is returning to the capital markets and most major economies are performing better than expected,” Chief Executive Bruce Flatt said Wednesday during an earnings call with security analysts. Flatt cited a “revived risk appetite” among investors. As the market improves, he said, Toronto-based Brookfield sees opportunities to buy “high-quality businesses and assets that cannot
withstand the increase in [interest] rates over the past two years.”
|
|
Buyout firm TPG’s first-quarter profit fell on higher expenses that reflect growth over the past year, and executives at the alternative-asset manager laid out plans to further expand its offerings, Chris Cumming writes for WSJ Pro Private Equity. San Francisco-based TPG’s net income dropped 38% to $15.5 million for the three months through March, from almost $25.1 million in the same period last year. Revenue rose 28% to about $824.1 million, but costs climbed even more, negating the gain. Chief Executive Jon Winkelried sounded an optimistic note on the economic outlook during an earnings call with securities analysts, saying the accelerating pace of realizations in the first quarter
may continue as markets improve.
|
|
|
|
|
|
5.2%
|
The gain in corporate profits in this year’s first three months based on S&P 500 member reports, topping a 3.4% consensus view, according to FactSet data
|
|
|
|
|
|
WSJ Pro is currently conducting our survey of secondary buyers for our 2024 Guide to the Secondary Market. WSJ conducts this annual survey of buyers to gauge deal activity in the private-equity secondary market. We are seeking information about secondary buyer portfolios and expectations for secondary market dealmaking in 2024. The deadline for completing the survey is today, May 9. Secondary investors can access the survey here.
|
|
|
|
|
PowerSchool provides software for K-12 education across North America.
PHOTO: RICHARD B. LEVINE / ZUMA PRESS
|
|
|
|
Bain Capital in Boston is in talks to take education-software provider PowerSchool private in a deal that would likely value the company at around $6 billion, including debt, Laura Cooper reports for The Wall Street Journal. News of the discussions drove the Folsom, Calif.-based company’s shares up as much as 29% Wednesday, but they closed with a 15% gain at $19.15 each after retreating during the session. Vista Equity Partners, which acquired the company in 2015, and Onex, which said it invested in 2018, are both still investors in the business, which went public in 2021.
|
|
Buyout firm CVC Capital Partners in London said it is investing in paint and coatings maker Hempel A/S, and may acquire as much as 30% of the business under an agreement with majority investor Hempel Foundation. The deal is expected to accelerate growth of the nearly 110-year-old Danish manufacturer. CVC is investing through its strategic opportunities strategy.
|
|
New Mountain Capital and a joint venture between TowerBrook Capital Partners and Ascension Health Alliance can hold discussions concerning a buyout of revenue-cycle-management systems provider R1 RCM, Colin Kellaher reports for Dow Jones Newswires, citing securities filings. New Mountain and the TowerBrook venture both hold significant minority stakes in the Murray, Utah-based company, which works with healthcare providers to help them maximize their revenue. New Mountain, owner of a 23% interest in R1, has suggested it would acquire the business through a joint deal with the TowerBrook group, holder of a nearly 36% stake, at a value of more than $5.7
billion.
|
|
Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec has agreed to invest 200 million Canadian dollars, or about $145.8 million, in apparel manufacturer Gildan Activewear through the purchase of 6% senior unsecured notes under a private placement. The notes mature in five years. Under terms of the transaction, Gildan agreed to remain based in Quebec for at least seven years.
|
|
Singapore’s GIC sovereign-wealth manager and Meritech Capital led a $105 million growth investment in data-management company Atlan, joined by existing backers that include PeakXV. The Singapore-based company’s products help users enhance business data for use by systems driven by artificial-intelligence technology. The transaction valued the company at about $750 million.
|
|
Barings, a private-equity manager owned by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance and based in Charlotte, N.C., said it has provided mezzanine financing backing Sky Island Capital's investment in oil industry supplier USA Industries in Houston. Dallas-based Sky Island acquired the business in 2022.
|
|
Family office Grosvenor in London led a more than $100 million growth investment in consumer company Meati Foods, joined by existing investors such as Revolution Growth. The Boulder, Colo.-based company, legally named Emergy, develops foods from mushrooms. Grosvenor backed the business from its Grosvenor Food & AgTech strategy.
|
|
Monroe Capital said in an emailed statement that it is supporting a senior credit facility to support the acquisition and growth of Interstate AC Service, Kimbro Mechanical and Open Source Controls by private-equity firm Point 41 Capital Partners.
|
|
Charlesbank Capital Partners in Boston has acquired CBPE Capital’s stake in wealth-management advisory company Perspective Financial Group, closing a deal announced in February. Perspective has around £8 billion, or roughly $10 billion, in assets under advisement, with about 535 employees working from almost 40 offices in the U.K.
|
|
Buyout firm KKR and hospitality specialist Amante Capital said they have acquired Park Grand London Kensington Hotel from Bartek Holdings. The firms plan to refurbish the 132-room property in an affluent area of Britain’s capital city.
|
|
|
|
Our add-on deal interactive tool allows you to sort and analyze volumes of add-on deal data compiled by WSJ Pro. View more.
|
|
|
|
|
|
HD Hyundai celebrated its listing in Seoul on Wednesday.
PHOTO: SEONGJOON CHO / BLOOMBERG NEWS
|
|
|
|
A Korean ship repair company backed by KKR, HD Hyundai Marine Solution, saw its shares nearly double in their first day of trading in Seoul, CNBC reports. The company priced its initial public offering at 83,400 won, or about $61.35 each, Kwanwoo Jun reports for the Journal. The shares closed Wednesday at 163,900 won, giving the business a market value of roughly $5.37 billion. KKR owns a 38% stake in the company, which is majority owned by shipbuilder HD Hyundai, its corporate parent.
|
|
Blackstone is selling more than 9.1 million shares of Hamilton Insurance Group back to the Bermuda-based insurer for $12 a share, representing a 12% discount to the 30-day volume-weighted average price of the issuer’s class B shares. The sale is expected to deliver about $109.5 million to Blackstone Alternative Solutions, according to a news release from Hamilton. The deal provides a full exit for New York-based Blackstone, which first backed the insurer more than 10 years ago.
|
|
European buyout firm Mutares in Munich said it has sold engineering services provider Iinovis Group to Accursia Capital. The Munich-based company works in the automotive and industrial sectors, generating revenue of about €33 million, or $35.5 million, last year. Mutares acquired its stake in the business through a carveout from Valmet Automotive in 2020.
|
|
Davidson Kempner Capital Management and the investment management arm of Intrepid Financial Partners are selling oil storage company Olympus Terminals to TPG’s Rise Climate strategy. The Long Beach, Calif.-based company is expected to provide a hub for renewable fuels transport and storage in Southern California. Davidson Kempner and Intrepid first backed the business in late 2021.
|
|
|
|
|
Silver Lake has raked in more than $20 billion for its seventh flagship fund. PHOTO: LM OTERO / ASSOCIATED PRESS
|
|
|
|
Buyout firm Silver Lake said it has closed Silver Lake Partners VII with $20.5 billion, or just above the $20 billion it collected for the flagship fund’s predecessor, which the Menlo Park, Calif., firm wrapped up in early 2021. Silver Lake lost little time in efforts to raise the latest fund, which had begun by October 2021 as dealmaking boomed for technology and tech-based services companies. Law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett advised Silver Lake. Investors that have disclosed commitments to the fund include
the Los Angeles Water and Power Employees’ Retirement Plan, the Los Angeles County Employees’ Retirement Association, the Teachers Retirement System of Louisiana, the Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Kentucky and the Washington State Investment Board, according to WSJ Pro Private Equity’s LP Commitments database.
|
|
Ares Management and Cion Investments said their joint venture’s credit fund designed for individual investors, Cion Ares Diversified Credit Fund, has surpassed $5 billion in assets. The venture set up the interval fund in 2017 and it is distributed through brokers as well as wealth managers and advisers.
|
|
Energy-focused EnCap Investments in Houston said it has wrapped up fundraising for EnCap Energy Transition Fund II, closing the vehicle with about $1.5 billion. The firm said in a January note to fund investors that it had invested about $210 million from the fund. In announcing its closure Wednesday, EnCap said it has committed capital to five companies so far from the fund.
|
|
Los Angeles-based Vance Street Capital has raised $775 million in a single closing for Vance Street Capital IV, above a $550 million target. Vance Street invests in critical business-to-business manufacturing businesses across the medical, life science, industrial technology, and aerospace & defense sectors. The fund was larger than its predecessor, which closed with $432.5 million in 2022.
|
|
Credit-focused Benefit Street Partners has closed BSP Special Situations Fund II and related parallel vehicles with approximately $850 million in capital commitments to provide bespoke private-credit solutions for borrowers that cannot access traditional markets. The firm has already deployed about 40% of the new fund’s capital.
|
|
|
Private-markets firm P10 in Dallas said Robert Alpert is stepping down as executive chairman and that Luke Sarsfield, the company’s recently appointed chief executive, will take on the added role of chairman when Alpert formally resigns in June. Alpert will remain a director of the publicly traded company. P10’s private-markets operating firms include Bonaccord Capital Partners, RCP Advisors, TrueBridge and impact investor Enhanced Capital.
|
|
Midmarket firm Blue Wolf Capital Partners said it has hired William MacColl as director of investor relations at the firm. MacColl previously served as director of North America investor relations at European private-equity firm IK Partners.
|
|
HCAP Partners said it has promoted Jessica Kim and Ben Consoli to vice president and has hired Chenjing Wang as a senior associate.
|
|
PitchBook Data founder John Gabbert is stepping down as chief executive of the private-markets research provider based in Seattle. Owner Morningstar said its CEO, Kunal Kapoor, is working with Gabbert to identify a successor while Rod Diefendorf, PitchBook’s chief operating officer, is leading a management team in running the business on an interim basis. Morningstar acquired the company in 2016 at a valuation of about $225 million.
|
|
|
|
|
Blackstone is based on Park Avenue in Midtown, Manhattan. PHOTO: JEENAH MOON / REUTERS
|
|
|
|
Blackstone in New York said in a regulatory filing that its Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust has benefited from focusing on warehouses near major cities as well as data centers and residential housing, including apartments, dormitories and rental homes, all of which helped to generate positive returns so far this year. “Just as important as what we own is what we don't own: no malls, no commodity office and virtually no exposure to challenged urban markets,” the firm said in a securities filing. With recent reports circulating that question the firm’s way of valuing Breit's assets, Blackstone said “the rigor of our valuations” has been affirmed over the past two years by the sale of
$20 billion of assets at an average 4% premium to carrying values and producing gains of more than $4 billion for the fund. The giant New York asset manager tailored Breit to appeal to individual investors and it has total assets of about $113 billion.
|
|
Publicly traded private-markets firm P10 said it added $670 million in fee-paying assets in the first quarter, bringing the total to about $23.8 billion at the end of March. The Dallas firm said net income surged to $5.2 million in the just-ended quarter from about $800,000 a year earlier, while revenue rose 15% to $66.1 million.
|
|
Insurer Mapfre in Spain said the country’s Official Credit Institute, or ICO, is backing a fund Mapfre set up with IAM Carbonzero to invest in biomethane, Mapfre Energías Renovables II, FCR. ICO has committed to invest €15 million, or about $16.1 million, to the vehicle through its venture-capital unit Axis. The fund set up last year invests in agricultural methane producers and related operations.
|
|
Private equity has orchestrated around 15% of mergers and acquisitions involving wealth managers and registered investment advisory firms, Kenneth Corbin reports for sister publication Barron’s, citing research from specialist investment bank DeVoe & Co. The proportion rose to that level last year as an increasing number of wealth advisers don’t have an internal successor to aging leaders.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|