Bain Defers Fund Fees, Others Should Follow
This space hasn’t always been too kind toward Bain Capital, in regards to the extraordinary fees it charges its (submissive) limited partners. Today, however, we need to give some credit where it’s due. The Boston-based buyout firm is proposing an amendment to all of its active private equity funds, which would temporarily waive all of its quarterly management fees. Those funds would instead be available for follow-on investment in existing portfolio companies, with the fees to ultimately be paid back out of the fund’s gross profits (assuming there are some). This strategy won’t matter much for relatively-uncalled Bain funds – like its tenth general PE fund or its third European fund – but is a big deal for a vehicle like Bain Capital IX, which is around 98% invested. Rather than using that final $160 million for fee payments, Bain would use it to inject additional equity into select existing investments.
