Your GP just proposed a continuation fund. The pitch deck shows a familiar asset, a fresh thesis, and a request for you to roll your capital into another five-year hold. The question you face is not whether continuation vehicles are legitimate (they are) or whether the market is growing (it is). The question is whether […]
GP-Led Continuation Vehicles and How the Longer-Hold Thesis Actually Underwrites Read More »
You’re reviewing a deal where the seller isn’t a founder or a private equity sponsor. It’s a Fortune 500 parent divesting a division that no longer fits the corporate strategy. The financials look odd: shared services allocations you can’t trace, intercompany revenue that disappears post-close, and a management team that has never operated without corporate
Corporate Carve-Outs and Where Orphaned Divisions Become Standalone Value Read More »
You have two term sheets on your desk. One offers minority growth capital at a higher valuation, betting on your trajectory. The other proposes a control buyout at a lower headline number but with a clear operational thesis. Both claim they can double your enterprise value in five years. But they are betting on completely
Growth Equity vs Buyout and Choosing the Return Engine That Fits the Business Read More »
Which ESG Factors Will Change Your Deal Economics? You are in diligence on a mid-market industrial target. The seller’s management deck includes a glossy sustainability section with carbon neutrality pledges and a DEI initiative. Your operating partner wants to know what matters. Your deal lead wants to know what changes price. And you are staring
You are sitting across from a GP who just presented a 28% net IRR and a 2.1x TVPI on their Fund III. The deck looks impressive. The track record slide is clean. But you have been in enough LP meetings and board discussions to know that the headline number rarely tells the full story. The
You are reviewing a platform acquisition priced at 12x EBITDA. The seller’s advisor calls it “in line with sector comps.” Your operating partner asks a sharper question: at that entry multiple, what combination of margin expansion, revenue growth, and debt paydown is required to hit your fund’s 2.5x gross return target over five years? If
A portfolio company misses covenant. The lender group fragments. Management turnover accelerates. Suddenly, what traded at 8x EBITDA eighteen months ago is available at 3.5x, and your deal team is deciding whether this represents genuine mispricing or the early innings of a collapse that still has further to fall. This is the core tension in
Distressed and Special Situations and When a Down Cycle Turns Into a Buying Window Read More »
You are reviewing a fund’s track record before committing capital or joining its advisory board. The IRR looks strong, maybe 22 percent net. The DPI, distributions to paid-in capital, tells a different story: 0.4x after six years. Something is off. The most likely explanation is NAV financing or its close cousin, subscription line financing. These
NAV Financing and Subscription Lines and What Fund-Level Leverage Hides in Returns Read More »
If you are advising a portfolio company board, sourcing deals for a mid-market fund, or sitting on a family-owned business weighing a sale, the volume of undeployed private equity capital shapes every conversation you will have in the next 18 months. Bain & Company’s 2024 Global Private Equity Report pegged global private equity dry powder
If you run a portfolio company, you probably know whether your PE sponsor is supportive, hands-on, or somewhere in between. What you likely do not know is how much runway they actually have, how their next fund is progressing, or whether the pressure you feel around exits and distributions reflects a portfolio-wide reality or just
