Greg Tsimbler

This is going to be truly transformational for Ukraine.

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Recent M&A market performance is showing significant signs of recovery from the lows of H2 2023, with the growth in PE and PE-backed deals leading the charge.

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Gain.pro's research got featured in the Financial Times :) more about the current state of PE below!

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Interesting thoughts from Houlihan on Direct PE (and the maturation of the market around independent sponsors) - "global volume (will) rise from $6 billion in 2019 to an estimated $50 billion this year, with annual deal numbers tripling over that period. We’ll see over 780 transactions this year... Directs have the promise to account for half of all annual capital raised for private equity in 10–15 years." #privateequity #independentsponsors

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Great webinar with FT Live on the Global M&A Outlook in the EMEA Region. There is a feel of the optimism in EMEA’s M&A landscape, with private equity leading the charge and valuations on the rise. Geopolitical certaintly, growth agenda, and interest rates certainly will provide confidence in the market, therefore, the future is looking really good. #wheredealsaremade #privateequity #mergers

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#Hargreaves_Lansdown Hargreaves Lansdown backed the £5.4 billion bid for the FTSE 100 fund manager today from a private equity consortium, a deal that will end its time as a listed company. The Bristol-based finance firm has been listed in London since 2007. It said today that the final offer valued its shares at 1140p in cash and would include a 30p per share dividend for the financial year which ended on 30 June. Compared to the Hargreaves Lansdown share price before the approach was first made in April, the price is at a premium of over 54%. The consortium is made up of CVC, Nordic Capital and ADIA. Hargreaves Lansdown is named after its founders – Peter Hargreaves and Stephen Lansdown – who set it up as an investment tip sheet. It now runs a state-of-the-art trading platform from which clients can run their own portfolios and pensions. https://lnkd.in/dKpizupy

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PE - Hedge Funds Hit by Lack of PE Exits (and one way that PE firms can boost exits) Financial Times: https://lnkd.in/edACss_X FYI - one way to get more PE exits is for the PE fund to have a domain expertise GTM and have deep knowledge on how to increase the Revenue Growth of portfolio companies which boosts cash, profits and margins. --- #pe #privateequity #business

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The British Business Bank produced a great report last week on the performance of UK VC funds (link in comments) over the last 20+ years. As with all reports like this, it's really important to dig into the detail and not just rely on the headlines. In particular, I was keen to compare the performance of the best UK funds to those in the US. While accepting the limitations of the data (all performance data on VC is based on a very low sample size), it's still interesting to see how the UK funds in the BBB report compare to the Cambridge Associates US VC benchmarks. As you can see from the chart below, the top quartile benchmark for UK funds exceeded the US funds for the period 2002-2007. But the sample size for UK funds in this period is particularly low (eg just five funds for the 2004/05 period). Since 2008, the top quartile UK funds have underperformed the US benchmark, and since 2010 are much closer to the US median return than the upper quartile. There are some outstanding founders and companies in the UK and some strong-performing VC funds. But the reality of VC is that performance is driven by a small number of outlier investments. Without these, it's almost impossible to deliver 3x net returns to LPs. For the UK to really become competitive with the US, we need to see more UK-based companies able to scale and exit at valuations in excess of $5bn. Unfortunately, there are no easy solutions to achieving this. We consistently hear from our VC managers that there is no shortage of capital for the best UK companies. Where there is a shortage is in the number of world-class founders looking to build in the UK. Get this right and the capital (and returns) will follow.

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"Diverse PE & VC firms invest in a different universe of deals" My own experience in investment management shows that the different views on deals is one fo the key success factors! 🏆 Working together in gender diverse teams or with people of different backgrounds is so inspiring and value generating and, in addition, provides better performance! It is so important for investors and the teams themselves to have more equal opportunities on all levels of an investment firm from junior to senior positions. 🚀 More information in our emma Ventures' post below:

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#Ultra_rich_individuals_and_families Ultra-rich individuals and families worth more than $150bn are helping drive a resurgence in private equity buyouts, providing capital for some of the year’s biggest acquisitions to overcome a tough dealmaking environment. Wealthy clans that built their fortunes in industries from children’s toys to household boilers have been co-investors on nearly $20 billion of listed company takeovers this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. They’ve made a mark on Wall Street as go-to sources of capital for investment firms like KKR & Co. and Silver Lake, helping them get acquisitions over the line at a time when borrowed money remains expensive. https://lnkd.in/d48TEht6

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#Private_equity Private equity’s $2 trillion pile of cash is set to fuel M&A opportunities in 2025. Private equity firms are sitting on an unprecedented war chest: roughly $2 trillion in uncalled capital. Often referred to as “dry powder,” this cash pile has been accumulating since the last big global mergers-and-acquisitions blowout, in 2021, when volume reached a whopping $5.9 trillion, according to Dealogic. The following year, activity plummeted 38.8%, and it’s been relatively quiet ever since. “We had a general slowdown in private equity exits in 2023 and 2024,” says Alain Dermarkar, US co-head of Private Equity at global law firm A&O Shearman. High interest rates were an issue; steep borrowing costs and lower returns created valuation mismatches, ultimately reducing the size, scope, and appeal of private equity deals. https://lnkd.in/dzxSUYkP

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This post (image below) highlights the positive track record of UK managed VC funds in delivering good returns to investors. According to the British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA) Performance Measurement Survey, in collaboration with PwC, UK managed VC funds have collectively achieved an impressive internal rate of return (IRR) of 11.2% per annum. This data underscores the potential for solid returns for investors engaging in these funds. Thank you to my ex-colleagues at the BVCA for compiling these amazing statistics - the full report can be seen here: https://lnkd.in/eF2RRKrP 👏 👏 👏

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Whilst corporates continue to pursue transformational deals, overall deal volume was down 6% in Q1 2024, with private equity showing the biggest fall in deal volume. However, more recent activity and market noise suggests momentum is building, which provides increased confidence for Q2 and beyond. Read our Q1 Industrials M&A review for an overview of industrials deal activity and trends. Thanks to Utsav Patel, Murray Smyth and Darian S.. #AlixPartnersindustrialsMandA

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Happy to share StepStone Group's 2023 Responsible Investment report that we released last week. There's a wealth of case studies highlighting our work in a range of areas from our promotion of financed emission measurement across private markets, our engagement with GPs on critical incidents, and how our Real Estate team engaged with a company to set science based net zero targets, where our additional investment was contingent upon the company committing to implement those targets. https://lnkd.in/eqxcCiVr

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This is exactly what we hear from the VCs that we back. In the UK, there is no shortage of capital for world-class founders. There is a shortage of world-class founders. We need to create the conditions where the very best founders choose the UK as the place to build their companies. If we do this, then the capital will follow. Strong-arming UK pension funds to invest in UK VC funds or, even worse, directly into UK companies, is not the answer. For a more detailed view on this, please see the white paper we published last year on the Mansion House initiative. https://lnkd.in/e86HSxrY

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Apollo eyes $5bn for evergreen fund - https://lnkd.in/e_qwHWYz TOP STORY: Apollo Global Management is targeting over $5bn for a new fund focused on deals sourced through its high-grade capital solutions business, according to a report by Bloomberg UK.

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Wow - another marquee deal that hits home, literally! GP stakes market leader Blue Owl Capital and Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Lunate are already active with their recently launched middle market GP stakes fund, acquiring a position in our friends at Chicago-based #healthcare focused private equity fund manager Linden Capital Partners! Congratulations to all! As Linden Capital Partners recently launched their fund VI and target its largest fundraise since inception at $4 billion+, accessing the global institutional investors relationships of Blue Owl Capital and Lunate will be tremendously advantageous particularly in this challenging global capital markets landscape, providing access to new diversified capital sources as well as global brand building of their proven track record. #differentiation Linden Capital Partners, founded in #Chicago in 2004 by Tony Davis and Brian Miller, has about $8 billion under management and are one of the best performing private markets managers in the business. The firm has backed businesses including Smile Doctors, a dental services platform; ERG, which operates clinical research sites; and Aspen Surgical, a maker of personal protective equipment and other supplies. In February 2024, Blue Owl Capital formed a partnership with Lunate, backed by #AbuDhabi #sovereignwealthfund ADQ, for a venture aimed at buying minority stakes in firms with less than $10 billion of fee-paying assets under management, ie the middle-market. The #gpstakes market remains buoyant and I expect to see several other top performing fund manager names announce deals in the coming few months. With capital flowing from global limited partners into the investment strategy, expect valuations to remain strong - the question - what will returns be as a result and how attractive are yields in this prolonged higher interest rate environment? Time to 1x DPI of expected paid in total capital continues to prolong. #alternativeassets #chicago #midwest #fundmanagers #privatemarkets #capitalmarkets #privateequity #institutionalinvestors #trackrecord #performance #abudhabi #unitedarabemirates

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Last Wednesday at SuperReturn Middle East Namit Chugh and I had a freewheeling chat on the role Middle Eastern capital could play in emerging markets. Having lived and worked in the UAE for half a decade as a fund manager and pitched to several local LPs across two fundraising roadshows my key takeaway is that Middle Eastern LPs are conservative - they believe in capital preservation even when allocating to alternative assets class. Which is why ME allocations have typically found their way to the developed US and EU markets. One also notices that ME investments into new age businesses in India typically comprise large cheques (~USD100Mn) in late stage (Series D, E, F) "startups" ostensibly in the belief that later stage investments were safer bets. The ME is gradually turning the spotlight inwards to provide an impetus to its non-oil related fledgling private sector (eg KSA, Oman) and to emerging economies in the MENA region. But, I don't see the ME countries venturing into South Asia and SE Asia. Isn't this a missed opportunity given that India and some SE Asian countries like Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines etc are together going to drive a major proportion of global GDP growth (as per the World Bank)? Hopefully, ME capital will wizen up and increase its India exposure but not only with few large late-stage cheques (which are also necessary for the growth of the ecosystem) but with several, and frequent, small and medium sized investments, across funds and startups, across stages. This will enable them to get to know the Indian market better and create a form of reciprocal symbiosis where their capital will benefit Indian startups and they could get dual returns in the form of pecuniary returns as well as the ability to tap India's R&D and innovation for the ME markets.

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The dynamics within private equity are shifting, with investment and operating teams increasingly working together to maximise portfolio value. At Fortius Partners, Simon and I anticipated this evolution when we merged Citius and Altius in early 2023. We built a core team of independent operating partners to support investment teams and operating leaders in delivering tangible results. In our first year, we led 14 transformation engagements; this year, that number has more than doubled, with 31 successfully completed. With expertise across sales transformation, pricing strategy, and post-merger integration, Fortius Partners is well-positioned to help investment teams and operating partners drive growth and operational excellence within their portfolios. #PrivateEquity, #DealFlow, #SalesTransformation, #PricingStrategy, #PostMergerIntegration, #GrowthStrategy, #TransformationExcellence, #PortfolioPerformance, #InvestmentStrategies, Fortius Partners Simon Andreas Hofmann #OperatingPartner

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