Download PDF Introduction Business Development Companies (BDCs) have recently experienced a boom, representing a major expansion in the US middle-market lending and private credit markets. In fact, BDCs now manage approximately $478bn and provide about a quarter of all “direct lending” to US companies. Their growth has bridged the gap Read more…
Download PDF Intro The 2007 acquisition of Hilton by Blackstone stands as one of the most iconic private equity deals in history. Often referred to as the “best LBO ever,” the transaction blended strategic vision, operational overhaul, and a dose of good timing. Blackstone, already a powerhouse in private equity Read more…
Download PDF Introduction Undoubtedly private markets are inherently illiquid. When an investor wants to cash out of private funds, they must navigate ambiguous pricing mechanisms, information asymmetries, and reliance on intermediaries. In the usual course of events, liquidity in private market investments is realised through planned exits. However, unforeseen circumstances Read more…
Download PDF Introduction At its core, the private credit industry refers to direct loans not negotiated in the traditional public environment and brings unique characteristics that improve this asset class’s resilience. In times of elevated interest rates, traditional banks have become increasingly conservative in lending policies due to concerns about Read more…
Download PDF Introduction Following the recent re-opening of the IPO market, CVC Capital Partners, the venerable European private equity firm, is said to be preparing to go public. This raises the question of whether doing so is a good idea. It is easy to say that going public is just Read more…
Download PDF Introduction In 2005, Blackstone’s [NYSE: BX] private equity fund made a, for its size, relatively modest investment of £102m to acquire Merlin Entertainment, a theme parks company, from the private equity fund Hermes Equity Partners. This was the first step in its strategy of rolling up the attractions Read more…
Download PDF Introduction On the 31st of October 2022, Emerson [EMR: NYSE] announced a definitive agreement under which it would sell a majority stake in its Climate Technologies company to private equity funds managed by Blackstone [BX: NYSE] in a deal valued at $14bn. Emerson will keep a non-controlling ownership Read more…
Download PDF Introduction On April 14th, it was announced that Italy’s known Benetton family and US investment fund Blackstone made a buyout offer for Atlantia, valuing the company at €54.3bn. What could be the second biggest deal of the year globally, only behind Activision Blizzard acquisition by Microsoft ($69bn), would Read more…
Download PDF Recently, there has been a slew of deals in the commercial real estate sector, with Blackstone being the most notable player. However, before analysing the reasoning behind these developments it is necessary to first understand the workings of the real estate private equity industry in its current form. Read more…
Download as PDF The spiking diffusion of COVID-19 outside of China, particularly in South Korea, Italy and Iran, has negatively affected financial markets, among concerns about its impact on business activity: in the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were all in correction territory this Read more…
Introduction The term eCommerce has been around for years, now. Definitions of it have been imprecise and, most of the time, people tend to associate it to companies like Amazon and Alibaba and not without a reason since their business is commerce through the internet. Virtual Commerce, however, is more Read more…
EQT AB [STO:EQT] – Market Cap as of 04/10/2019 SEK 83.58bn (USD 8.49bn) Introduction On Tuesday, September 24th 2019, the Swedish group EQT— the second largest Private Equity group in Europe — listed on the Stockholm Nasdaq in what was the biggest Private Equity listing of the past decade and Read more…
Introduction The private equity industry has always had a special place in the financial world. Its competitive and dynamic nature has captivated the most talented businessmen, but what really allowed it to grow steadily over the past 40 years was the outstanding performance it granted to the investors willing to Read more…
Blackstone Group Inc. (NYSE:BX) – market cap as of 16/09/2019: $63.96bn Dream Global Real Estate Investment Trust (TSE:DRG.UN) – market cap as of 16/09/2019: $3.22bn Intro On September 15, Dream Global Real Estate Investment Trust announced acquisition agreements with affiliates of real estate funds manager, Blackstone, in an all-cash $4.7bn Read more…
Private Equity Industry Overview Private equity is like home flipping, but with large corporations instead of dilapidated houses from the 1970’s. Only rather than having profits in the tens of thousands, it’s in the tens of millions. The private equity industry, pioneered in the 1970’s by the likes of KKR Read more…