Harvest Partners PIPEs Up
Yesterday Harvest Partners, a buyout firm based in New York, announced a deal to invest $80 million in listed natural gas services provider Regency Energy Partners LP. The PIPE deal is just another in a line of private investments in public equities-since the credit crunch, private equity firms have been increasingly attracted to the investment style. And in some cases they may be rewarded handsomely for basically playing the stock market. Leonard Green Partners, for example, could earn roughly twice its investment in Whole Foods Market in a matter of a year or so. Last November, the firm purchased preferred stock which pays an 8% dividend and is convertible into common stock worth 17% of the company. At the time, the stock traded around $10 per share. Today Whole Foods stock closed at $27.40 per share. Others have been less lucky. Sun Capital Partners' public equities fund, Sun Capital Securities, has struggled after losing all of its investment in Sharper Image when the company went bankrupt in 2008. And of course there's TPG's famous WaMu misstep.
