Steve Gelsi
Meir Grossman figures Seward & Kissel LLP is ready for a continued surge in seed investment deals to launch emerging alternative investment managers, since his firm has already worked on 20 such transactions for private equity and hedge funds since this time a year ago.
Elevation Partners, the high-profile private equity firm co-founded by rock star Bono and prominent Silicon Valley names, is expected to roughly break even on its $300 million investment in Forbes Media, but the buyout shop no longer plans to raise Fund II despite an uptick in its performance of late, according to a person familiar with the firm.
The chief of leveraged lending specialist GE Antares Capital, a unit of General Electric Co, sees more energy deals in the pipeline as mid-market sponsors seek out ways to boost returns through investments related to oil, natural gas and other fuels both in the United States and abroad.
Permira Advisers said it closed Permira V with $7.2 billion in commitments, capping off a fundraising process that gained traction with positive economic signals in Europe and the United States and growing interest from LPs.
Easterly Capital said it hired two executives in a move to expand its senior ranks to at least five as the firm looks to develop managed accounts for large capital allocators, pensions and institutions in real estate, natural resources and financial assets.
The Teachers’ Retirement System of Illinois approved a $50 million commitment to JMI Equity Fund VIII and hiked its allocation program to emerging managers to by $250 million, among the $44 billion pension fund’s latest moves.
The $150 billion New York City Pension Funds approved a measure to expand a ban on placement agents from private equity funds to all investment classes, marking fresh moves that date back to the pay-to-play scandals of the late 2000s.
With U.S. gross domestic product grinding along at less than a 3 percent growth rate, a fresh survey of 119 private equity pros by the Private Equity Growth Capital Council found that slightly more than half expect a very favorable or somewhat favorable investment environment over the next 12 months.
LeapFrog Investments, a specialist in funding insurance, savings and pension firms in Africa and parts of Asia, has raised about $300 million for LeapFrog Financial Inclusion Fund II LP, pulling in more commitments on the heels of $10 million from Prudential Financial Inc, according to a person familiar with the firm.
The California State Teachers’ Retirement System committed $743 million to private equity investments during the first quarter, with a $200 million commitment to Clayton Dubiler & Rice Fund IX drawing the single largest pledge, according to an investment report published on the pension agency’s website.