The Canada Pension Plan and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan are both denying a Dow Jones report that they are part of a group designed to “press buyout firms to give them a greater say over how their money is managed.” The article listed four groups as part of the lobbying effort, including CPP, Ontario Teachers, AlpInvest (Netherlands) and GIC (Singapore). In all the quartet manages over $100 billion of private equity assets. "It is categorically untrue," says Deborah Allen, director of communications for Ontario Teachers. "We regularly talk to other LPs -- that's part of our job -- but we have no exclusive conversations or organization like was described... I think the technical term would be 'poppycock.'"
2 min read · 09 September 2008
Regular readers know that I am a late adopter when it comes to communication technology. First cell phone in 2002. First Blackberry four months ago. First Twitter tweet sometime in the future. But that doesn't mean that I can't recognize the usefulness of such things, which leads me to recommend a Twitter stream for entrepreneurs in search of venture capital. It's called VCtips, and can be found here. The stream is populated by a dozen VCs, including Brad Feld (Foundry Group), Fred Wilson & Albert Wegner (Union Square Ventures), Bryce Robers (OATV), Josh Kopelman & Rob Hayes (First Round
1 min read · 09 September 2008
Last Friday, I wrote about how LPs were gaining some leverage on their mega-fund GPs, after years of being the weaker sister. Today, Dow Jones reports that a group of large institutional investors – representing over $100 billion in PE assets under management -- have formed a lobbying group to collectively press for more LP-friendly fund terms. These include GIC, AlpInvest, Canada Pension Plan and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. I’ve long supported such an organization in theory, believing that LPs too often give away the store to greedy GPs (particularly in terms of transaction fee splits). But I’m immensely curious as to why no U.S. systems – particularly CalPERS and CalSTRS – are involved. The DJ article cites a group member as saying that “U.S. public pension plans lacked the resources to contribute to such a network.” Sorry, but that simply does not hold water. CalPERS, for example, has the resources in terms of both personnel and money. It also holds more cachet among U.S. buyout firms than do either GIC or AlpInvest, or at least more PR value when political attacks arrive. So let me throw out something else: Could there be a fear of collusion?
2 min read · 09 September 2008
1 min read · 09 September 2008
2 min read · 08 September 2008
2 min read · 08 September 2008
The LP-GP power dynamic has always been a tricky thing. It stands to reason that LPs should have superior leverage, because it’s their lucre that feeds the GP beast. But the reality is that GPs – at least the mildly/wildly successful ones – have traditionally run roughshod over their investors. Part of it is because LPs are poorly-networked with one another (therefore reducing the chance for collective action), while another part is that the LP community is ever-growing (making it easier for GPs to say goodbye to a disgruntled LP, because three newbies are waiting in the wings). This power dynamic did briefly shift earlier this decade – when overcapitalized VC firms were compelled to “hand back” uncalled LP commitments – but that was the only time I’d seen it. Well, until now.
3 min read · 05 September 2008
1 min read · 05 September 2008
We’ve written ad nauseam about the lousy exit market, but every now and then there’s a PE-backed company just ripe for the profitable picking. Today that company is National Default Exchange, a Texas-based provider of processing services for mortgage defaults, foreclosures and bankruptcy administration. Talk about being situated at the top of a market cycle.
1 min read · 04 September 2008
1 min read · 04 September 2008
