Category Archives: WEEKLY SPIN

NFL huddles with Wall Street

Touchdown Private Equity! 🏉 Today marks the day when the National Football League huddles together to vote on, and formally approve, private equity ownership of NFL teams. It is a big deal for both parties and expectations are that a number of teams will look to move quickly into the end zone and secure PE dollars by the end of the year. The NFL is the last remaining US professional sports league to open up to PE investment and as the league convenes it will likely agree to cap private equity investment at 10% of a team’s overall value. With no voting rights. Quite what this will do to team valuations is anyone’s guess, but any investment made by PE firms will be far from a nickel and dime affair. The Dallas Cowboys are currently the richest franchise, with a valuation of $10 billion. You could say today represents the NFL’s game winning drive. With sports franchises proving a hugely popular investment theme, it’ll be interesting to watch some of the PE industry’s big names jostle for position. Let the game commence.

Inspired by the Front Office Sports

Double Vision

What fundraising challenge? HarbourVest Partners clearly hasn’t read the memo. The firm’s executives are seeing double, following news that the Boston-based asset manager has raised $18.5 billion for its latest secondary fund; that’s nearly twice the size of its previous vintage. Dover Street XI secured $15.1 billion of investor commitments in addition to $3.4 billion for its Secondary Overflow Fund V, which invests in parallel. The fund will invest in both LP-led and GP-led secondaries, including fund portfolios, single companies and groups of companies. Such has been the level of investor demand, it suggests investors view PE secondaries as a ‘safe harbour’ to continue building their exposure in the asset class. With sponsor-led deals expected to increase, HarbourVest will be busy exploring the depths of secondaries as it puts Dover Street XI’s capital to work.

Inspired by the Wall Street Journal

Good Greave, How Much?

The UK’s largest stockbroker, Hargreaves Lansdown, has agreed to a PE takeover led by a group of investors that include CVC Group, Nordic Capital Advisors and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. The deal is equivalent to £5.4 billion. The firm was established in Bristol in 1981 by Peter Hargreaves and Stephen Lansdown. The champagne corks will be flying through the air as the founders take stock of what has been an incredible success story. An initial offer in May, which valued the company at £4.7 billion, was rejected. Through June 2024, the stockbroker’s reported earnings and revenues were up 4% respectively. It is believed that the new owners will focus on investment in technology and service enhancement as they look to drive growth. It will mean saying Au Revoir to the FTSE 100. The suspense, it seems, is over as the Bristol brokerage prepares to embark on a new journey.

Inspired by CNBC

Make Hay While The Sun Shines

It’s been a gold medal performance for the pension fund, British Columbia Investment Management, after announcing it had agreed to sell its investment in European credit manager, Hayfin Capital Management. Like Novak Djokovic’s blistering winner at the Paris Olympics on Sunday, BCI secured a solid return more than three times its initial investment. Having initially bought a 70% stake in the manager in 2017, equating to a valuation of EUR250 million (which reduced to 60% over time), BCI agreed to sell Hayfin through a management buyout backed by Arctos Partners for EUR1.3 billion. Talk about making hay while the sun shines! This gives BCI a healthy return on what has proven to be a winning deal for its private equity portfolio. Although it is believed they are in no immediate rush to pursue any new direct investments. Time to sit back and enjoy the afterglow.

Inspired by PitchBook

True collective

The HBO show True Detective won critical acclaim when it first appeared on screen. Asia’s wealthy pursuing philanthropic initiatives might want to apply the same focus to uncover the mystery of how to combat climate change. The region is one of the most climate-vulnerable regions with Swiss Re Institute forecasting that its aggregate GDP could fall by more than 25% in the next 25 years if collective action isn’t taken. Philanthropy is well placed to act as a catalytic (climate) converter and push the innovation envelope to uncover new solutions and tools to combat climate risk. Doing so could attract greater public and private investment to protect the region’s economic prospects. As Vanilla Ice famously said: “Stop. Collaborate and listen.” This is the philanthropy sector’s call to climate action.

Inspired by The World Economic Forum