Private Equity
The boundaries keep getting blurred between private equity funds and hedge funds, as one of the world’s largest money managers, Neuberger Berman, has raised most of its $1 billion target for its new Dyal Capital Partners private equity fund, which plans to take minority stakes in prominent hedge fund firms. According to a person familiar with the fund, Dyal so far has raised more than $600 million toward its goal. Dyal began raising money in July 2010, and there is a good possibility that the fund will be able to close by the end of 2011, the person said.
3 min read · 15 August 2011
The success of Google+ has caught Facebook off-guard, and with 25 million members, Google+ has just become the fastest growing Web site in history, according to Wedbush Securities. Jen Rogers of Reuters Insider interviews legendary Silicon Valley entrepreneur Steve Blank, who says that the battle between the two sites is growing into a social-media ''arms race.''
1 min read · 29 July 2011
After Comcast-Spectator agreed in July to sell the Philadelphia 76ers to a group led by Joshua Harris, an Apollo Global Management co-founder, and including David Blitzer, a Blackstone Group senior managing director, and after Tom Gores, the founder and chief executive of Platinum Equity, signed a deal in April to buy the Detroit Pistons, we got to wondering, over at sister publication Buyouts, about other participation by buyouts pros—and even firms themselves—in big-league sports. Here's what we found:
3 min read · 28 July 2011
Wayne Smith, who has overseen the $5.4 billion private equity program for Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management (MassPRIM), announced plans to step down and join Pathway Capital Management, a fund-of-funds company with $23 billion under management. As senior investment officer, Smith has managed MassPRIM’s private equity assets since 2002. He joined the pension system in 2000, and reported to Chief Investment Officer Stanley Mavromates.
1 min read · 27 July 2011
Virgin Green Fund, a private equity firm affiliated with Sir Richard Branson, the media and airline mogul, plans to launch a second fund, the Virgin Green Fund II LP, shortly, a person familiar with the plans told Buyouts, peHUB's sister magazine. The new fund will target $300 million and is expected to close by the end of 2011, the person said. The San Francisco and London-based growth capital firm invests mainly in renewable energy companies and enterprises that develop efficient ways to use resources. It invests primarily in North American and European firms that have already achieved a measure of growth, helping to distinguish it from the many venture capital firms that operate in the renewable energy space.
2 min read · 27 July 2011
California’s two giant pensions blazed ahead of their benchmarks to post fiscal-year returns that each topped 20 percent. The $154.3 billion California State Teachers’ Retirement System, said its 23.1 percent return was “remarkable,” adding that it was its best performance in 25 years. Meanwhile, the $237.5 billion California Public Employees Retirement System posted a 20.7 percent return, the best since 1997. Together, the two pensions are now $66 billion richer than they were at this time a year ago. Leading the strong returns were public and private equities. For CalPERS, private equity, which accounts for 13.8 percent of its portfolio, returned 25.3 percent for the year, whereas public equities, accounting for 53.4 of the portfolio, returned 30.2 percent. At CalSTRS, private equity, which makes up 14.3 percent of its portfolio, returned 22.5 percent for the year, while public equities, which accounted for 53.4 percent of the portfolio, returned 31.9 percent for the year.
3 min read · 18 July 2011
In an effort to build a bigger private equity portfolio, the $6.5 billion Municipal Employees Retirement System of Michigan has engaged a newly merged Carlyle and AlpInvest to manage as much as $750 million of the pension’s money. The pension currently has a 9.6 percent allocation to private equity, or slightly more than $630 million in invested capital. The new MERS initiative calls for $500 million to be invested by AlpInvest, the Netherlands-based fund-of-funds unit of Carlyle, plus $250 million to be invested by Carlyle’s managed funds group. The investment contract is for five years. The Washington D.C.-based Carlyle Group, which now manages about $150 billion in assets, agreed in January to merge with AlpInvest. That merger, which was originally slated to close in March, had been delayed until July 1. The MERS deal is the first asset management deal to be announced by the newly merged private equity firm.
1 min read · 11 July 2011
The buttons have been hot in California during the frustratingly slow economic recovery, especially on the issue of public pensioners getting more than $100,000 per year in retirement. Even though six-digit pensions go to about two percent of California public sector retirees, the message, it seems, is that those working for the state should not get large pensions, or salaries, no matter what talents or responsibilities they bring to their jobs. So, what about the guy who manages the $232 billion pension fund? Joe Dear, who oversees investments for the California Public Employees’ Retirement System was paid $548,142 in 2010, according to new salary disclosures released Tuesday by California’s comptroller, John Chiang. That made him the sixth highest-paid person on the California payroll. Dear's 2010 salary would greatly exceed that of Gov. Jerry Brown, who will earn $173,986 in 2011, according to the California Citizens Compensation Commission. That, by the way, makes Brown the seventh-highest paid governor in the country. (Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger didn't accept a salary in 2010.)
2 min read · 06 July 2011
For all the private equity firms waiting – patiently and impatiently – for limited partners’ moods to improve, the wait is over. According to a new LP survey by Preqin, the private equity data firm, LPs are moving squarely off neutral and into high-gear in terms of committing new funds. More than three times as many LPs, about 46 percent of Preqin’s respondents, said they planned to increase the amount of capital that they commit to private equity during 2011, as compared to 13 percent who said they planned to reduce their commitment levels. And of those LPs who planned to commit more in 2011, about two in every five said they said they planned to increase their commitments “significantly.” The Preqin results echo another recent study – this one by Coller Capital – which reported that more than twice as many LPs planned to increase their target allocations to private equity in 2011, as compared to those who planned to decrease their allocations. The Preqin results were more profound, revealing that more than three times as many LPs planned to increase their target allocations to PE over the next 12 months as those that planned to decrease them.
2 min read · 28 June 2011
Searchlight Capital Partners, a media-focused private equity firm working to launch its debut fund, has come closer to reaching its initial goal of raising $1 billion, according to people familiar with the fund. In addition, federal filings reveal that the firm has so far raised several hundred million dollars, although those figures could include some overlap. The $1 billion goal is considered large for a first-time fund, although the firm’s three founders are by no means new to the private equity space. The three founders of Searchlight have overseen deals in media and other industries at two top private equity firms as well as one of Canada’s leading pension funds. Before co-founding Searchlight, Eric Zinterhofer helped lead media and telecommunications investing at Apollo Global Management, where he was a partner. He remains the chairman of Charter Communications, the St. Louis, Missouri-based cable television giant.
1 min read · 14 June 2011
