Private Equity

Hedge fund pair trade would end Sculptor standoff

4 Oct 2023

Boaz Weinstein and pals again raised their bid for the $34 bln firm and are now willing to risk clients decamping. Agreed buyer Rithm would be better off just hiring boss Jimmy Levin. The rival suitors don’t want him and could tear up any non-compete contract to sweeten the deal.

Covid tester buyout hands investors a bitter pill

29 Sep 2023

Cinven is buying back Synlab after floating it just two years ago. Acquiring the German group at a 44% discount to its IPO price is nice for the buyout shop, but hard for investors to swallow. Either way, it reflects ebbing demand for health checks as inflation soars.

Apollo’s divergent path outshines Blackstone

28 Sep 2023

Marc Rowan’s $55 bln asset manager found permanent capital in insurance. Steve Schwarzman’s firm uses small-fry investors. That led Apollo to safer assets, while Blackstone is leaning into buyouts that suffer from high rates. Apollo’s valuation can shed its boringness discount.

Jeffrey Epstein leaves small mark on Wall Street

27 Sep 2023

JPMorgan will fork out another $75 mln to settle claims over its ex-client, winding down the sordid mess for financiers. The sex offender cost two industry CEOs their jobs, while banks now monitor such reputational risks more closely. The effects are likely to fade soon, however.

Permira will have to work to exit classified hole

22 Sep 2023

The buyout firm has teamed up with Blackstone to take Norway’s Adevinta private. Its initial outlay in 2021 is under water after a tech downturn battered the $11 bln company’s valuation. Permira’s hopes of a decent return rest on turbocharging sales and tangibly hiking margins.

Sculptor standoff makes sense mainly for one guy

8 Sep 2023

The $34 bln hedge fund manager keeps snubbing a rival takeover bid led by Boaz Weinstein. His group is offering 14% more than agreed buyer Rithm and has made some helpful concessions. Most stakeholders would benefit if the stonewalling stopped, but not Sculptor boss Jimmy Levin.

Brookfield’s climate promise faces a dirty test

8 Sep 2023

The investor’s pending $12 bln co-purchase of Origin includes Australia’s largest coal plant. Fear of blackouts may keep it running past an expected 2025. Even with deep pockets and oodles of renewables expertise, it may be hard to avert such an epic energy transition fail.

Reese Witherspoon tries to make deal stars align

6 Sep 2023

The “Wild” actor is selling 70% of her Draper James clothing line, two years after Blackstone backed a buyout of her media firm. George Clooney and Dr. Dre showcase the allure of celeb brands, but ones involving Jessica Simpson and Jessica Alba turned fame to financial shame.

Barbie’s a boss but not a business model

5 Sep 2023

Warner Bros says the doll-based movie, its biggest ever at $1.4 bln, will boost cash flow and help pay down debt. The contribution is welcome amid a costly writers’ strike. Relying on old brands has a patchy track record, however, partly because they’re up against more new faces.

Twinkies maker will give food brands a sugar high

1 Sep 2023

Sweet-treat purveyor Hostess is mulling a sale to a conglomerate seven years after private equity firm Apollo took it public for $2.3 bln. At its current valuation, and as the pandemic sugar rush fades, there’s not much cream left for the next buyer to squeeze.

Instacart’s mixed bag has valuation opportunities

28 Aug 2023

The food delivery firm is worth far less than its high point in 2021. The cost to get new customers is rising, too. But a push to sell ads, a sensible business, could help bring its valuation close to $17 bln. As long as Instacart is reasonable, it can get its listing, finally.

Roark scores sandwich deal better than $5 footlong

24 Aug 2023

Family-owned Subway is settling for a $10 bln price in its sale to the buyout firm. It values the chain at a lower multiple than peers and other deals, including Roark’s Dunkin’ purchase. With IPO markets opening and terms protecting buyers, there’s plenty to nibble on.

Private funds’ regulatory dream meets logical end

23 Aug 2023

Securities watchdogs are proposing safeguards for private equity and hedge fund investors. The now-$25 trln industry owes its growth partly to lighter regulation than at the banks it is displacing. Tighter rules will irk some, but growing up should bring new responsibilities.

Private equity bites off mostly what it can chew

17 Aug 2023

KKR, GTCR and others are clawing out of a deal bust with modest aims. A recent spate of sub-$2 bln buyouts, including ones involving Simon & Schuster, Avid and ADT, speaks to the trend. It’s a good way to stay active, but a $1 trln hoard of capital can’t sit unspent indefinitely.

Capital Calls: Selling Salesforce

15 Aug 2023

Concise views on global finance: After successfully agitating for change at the $200 bln software developer, Jeff Smith’s Starboard and Dan Loeb’s Third Point are offloading their stakes. It’s probably a good time to pocket gains considering the challenges ahead for Big Tech.

Capital Calls: Exor/Philips

14 Aug 2023

Concise views on global finance: The Agnelli family is making a well-timed bet on the troubled 18 bln euro conglomerate that makes everything from toothbrushes to defibrillators.

The new buyout mantra: vive la différence

9 Aug 2023

During the Covid deal boom, it was great to be Blackstone; with M&A in a rut, Apollo’s $1 bln of quarterly earnings shines through. Business models are increasingly diverging as asset managers encroach on turf ceded by banks. For now at least, a big balance sheet holds appeal.

Simon & Schuster deal contains a financial mystery

8 Aug 2023

KKR is buying the publisher of Stephen King and Colleen Hoover for $1.6 bln from Paramount after trustbusters blocked a sale to Penguin Random House. Even with modest growth, a 25% annualized return looks feasible for the buyout shop. What’s unclear, however, is the exit plan.

Capital Calls: Uber’s road trip to redemption

1 Aug 2023

Concise views on global finance: The $95 bln ride-sharing firm notched its first operating profit and more than doubled free cash flow, but its valuation is lagging.

Carlyle beats deal arbitrageurs at their own game

26 Jul 2023

The buyout shop’s loan to Roomba-maker iRobot should give the company time to sew up its $1.7 bln sale to Amazon. The lifeline, which also triggered a 15% cut to the purchase price, doesn’t come free. Heads-I-win-tails-you-lose terms extract value from existing shareholders.