Thoma Bravo Sells Adenza to NASDAQ, PE Firms Circle Goldman's Consumer Lending Business
Private equity news for the week of June 12.
Insights
Chart of the Week: While buyout sizes have fallen sharply across all sectors over the past two years, in the near-term we’ve observed an increase in deal sizes in three sectors: financials, energy, and services. Financials is a particularly interesting sector at the moment, given the recent volatility in regional banking. It seems the sector has reached a price level and stability that some funds are satisfied with to increase their exposure. (Read More)
Deal News
Thoma Bravo has agreed to sell financial software firm Adenza to NASDAQ for $10.5B, roughly 16x expected 2023 revenues. It’s a blockbuster deal for Thoma Bravo, which will see a 2x return on its investment after it acquired and merged two companies (Calypso and AxiomSL) which were eventually renamed Adenza. The company develops enterprise software to help financial institutions manage compliance, regulation, risk, and treasury. (Source)
Apollo Global Management, Sixth Street, and Warburg Pincus are each reportedly in talks to acquire GreenSky, a home improvement financing business, from Goldman Sachs. Goldman paid $2B for the specialty lender just over one year ago, but the bank has decided to exit consumer banking (including Marcus) to focus on its core businesses. (Source)
Blackstone has agreed to acquire a majority stake in billboard operator New Tradition Media at a valuation between $500M-$750M. The firm was founded in 2010 and owns major out-of-home (OOH) advertising properties in San Francisco, Washington D.C., Las Vegas, and New York City (including the iconic 1 Times Square billboard). We first reported the deal was in talks in mid-May. (Source)
Industry News
A survey of private equity LPs found that investors are favoring middle-market, lower middle-market, and special situations/turnarounds in today’s environment rather than large buyouts or growth investments. This echoes findings from the Value Add report Private Equity: Buyouts, in which we noted that buyout deals are shrinking in size. (Coller Capital)
Meanwhile, nearly $30B worth of private equity buyouts have fizzled out in recent weeks — largely because of disagreements over valuation. Stocks entered a bull market this week, but private equity deal activity is still down vs last year. (Bloomberg)
Insight Partners, one of the largest tech-focused venture firms with $90B in assets, raised just $2B for a new fund that was targeting $20B. The firm is still aiming to raise over $10B. Insight said LP demand for high-growth investments has significantly deteriorated. However, tech has remained one of the most-popular sectors for buyouts — just not the risky, high-growth variety. (Financial Times)
A new report sheds light on the lack of diversity in the private equity industry. Only 11% of senior investment roles are currently held by women, and while that’s up from 10% in 2021, the progress is moving more slowly than many would hope. (BCVA Diversity & Inclusion Report)
US public pension fund CalPERS (California Public Employees’ Retirement System), is considering allocating $5B of its $52B private equity portfolio to venture capital in Europe and Asia. Currently, only 1% of the fund is dedicated to venture, but the fund is looking for greater diversification after losing $77M in the fall-out of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. (Financial Times)
Symphony Technology Group has hired Anne Russ to be its new head of capital markets. Previously, Russ was a managing director at Goldman Sachs where she led the bank’s TMT leveraged finance team. (eFinancial Careers)
A slew of bankruptcies have hit private equity. 18 PE-backed companies filed for bankruptcy in the first five months of 2023, the most since 2020. However, corporate bankruptcies in general are on the rise, so it’s not a trend specific to private equity. (PitchBook)
The US’s National Football League has told Apollo Global Management cofounder Josh Harris, who is acquiring the Washington Commanders, that he cannot use private equity to finance the deal. That said, Harris has been actively selling shares of his stake in Apollo to help put in cash for the deal. (Forbes)
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