Blackstone nearly doubles London workforce after wooing dealmakers March 8, 2022 Blackstone has nearly doubled its London workforce during the pandemic, according to its chief operating officer (COO) today, as it eyes the capital as the jewel of Europe. Betting on Europe to keep pumping out sparkly investment opportunities, the now 500-strong team has been built by wooing dealmakers from investment banking rivals. “We are at [...]
Hipgnosis Songs Fund reports revenue and asset value decline amid uncertainty over its future December 21, 2023 Hipgnosis Songs Fund, the investment company that owns a portfolio of music and song royalty rights, has today published its delayed interim results for the six months to 30 September.
Top shareholder advisory firm U-turns to back JP Morgan pay plan after misinterpreting data May 11, 2023 Influential shareholder advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has U-turned on its initial recommendation to reject the pay packages for senior executives at JP Morgan. Just last week ISS had urged shareholders to vote against executive’s pay packages. However, JP Morgan wrote a letter to the firm on Monday, arguing it had wrongly interpreted data [...]
New breed of private capital firms will face performance headwinds October 18, 2022 Under the private equity fundraising model, every few years fund managers secure capital commitments with a 10-year duration and charge management and advisory fees during the lock-up period. While longer-dated products have emerged over time, the basic pattern has remained essentially unchanged. Unfortunately, fundraising is cyclical. Downturns require patience: fund managers must wait until the [...]
TR Property makes ‘sizeable gains’ from private equity real estate takeovers June 1, 2022 TR Property Investment Trust has been given a leg up thanks to the stream of private equity investment being funnelled into the European real estate market over the past year. Chairman of the London-listed firm David Watson said today that private equity investment into real estate “continues to be elevated” and that the Trust has [...]
Investors scramble to dump UK property funds as valuations dive amid widening Kwarteng mini-budget chaos October 13, 2022 Following last week’s bond market turmoil, which sent shockwaves through the City, investors are now scrambling to exit UK property funds. Since the new chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, presented his Mini-Budget at the end of September, the pace at which investors are pulling out of UK commercial real estate funds has accelerated. In the 10 days [...]
The Notebook: Rupak Ghose on the FTSE’s struggles, Goldman Sachs morale and the ludicrousness of LinkedIn ‘extreme CEO’ routines August 30, 2023 The fintech advisor on reinvigorating the stock market, fintech's payments problem and why nobody actually gets up at 4am to meditate
Blackstone deal bags Spanx a spanking new $1.2bn valuation October 21, 2021 Shapewear brand Spanx has bagged a $1.2bn valuation after inking a deal with investment heavyweight Blackstone. The deal will see Blackstone snap up a majority stake in the brand, though how much the private equity firm forked out for the shapewear brand is not yet known. After founding the company in 2000 with $5,000 in [...]
How did Hipgnosis go so off-key this year? December 19, 2023 The UK’s largest listed investor in music catalogues and royalties has just delayed its half-year results, claiming an independent valuation is far higher than recent proposed sales have suggested.
Starling Bank and Barclays in the race to carve up Kensington January 27, 2022 Digital challenger bank Starling and Barclays are among the names looking to snap up a piece of mortgage lender Kensington after its private equity owners put the firm up for sale last year, according to reports. Starling is reportedly up against Barclays and another high street lender to buy Kensington’s lending platform, while american investment [...]