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银湖资本出售silverlakeit |
It’s been about 12 hours since we learned that Silver Lake Partners has sold a piece of itself to CalPERS. So who’s next? Here’s my stab at playing oddsmaker:
KKR
2-1. “The most likely firm to sell an ownership stake is always
going to be the firm closest to going public,” says someone who
helps arrange such deals. So that would be KKR, even though we can
all agree that the IPO is a disaster-in-waiting (never buy stock
when the prospectus’ use of proceeds section says: “To prove mine
is bigger”).
TPG
3-1. Biggest, baddest brand left on the board. It also has a leader
smart enough to hold his ostentatious parties in Vegas, where every
party is ostentatious. No other firm on this list has had more buzz
about a possible ownership stake sale, or had more
pre-credit-crunch IPO predictions. Oh, and it’s finally the right
time to have a venture capital arm.
Bain Capital
6-1. This one has most of the right ingredients, but it just
doesn’t feel like a go. Maybe if the Celtics had drafted Yi
Jianlian and Romney still had a chance of being elected president.
Plus, why sell a piece when you’re getting 30% carry?
Warburg Pincus
10-1. The most idiosyncratic of private equity firms, with a single
fund to do billion dollar buyouts and few million dollar startups.
It works for them, but kind of hard for an outsider to get his head
around. Walks to the beat of its own drummer, and these odds are
all about following the crowd. Of course, there once were these
three drummers: The Brown Brothers and Old Man Harriman.
First Reserve Corp.
16-1. Last week, I would have told you that the energy-only focus
was a detriment. But then tech-only Silver Lake sells a piece, and
industry diversification doesn’t seem as important. Plus, First
Reserve’s performance is strong enough to make grown LPs cry.
Madison Dearborn Capital Partners
16-1. Chicago-based firm known for investing in basic industries?
Just lacks the sex appeal that seems to drive decision-makers in
Dubai and Sacramento. Plus, carried interest at MDCP is broadly
distributed, with no one individual receiving double-digit points
(out of 100). Does that sound like a particularly greedy bunch to
you?
Thomas H. Lee Partners
20-1. A lot of these deals are done to help senior managers
recognize brand equity, but that isn’t really in play at THL. The
firm bought out namesake Tom Lee back in 1999, and its current top
dogs are still relative pups.
Apollo Management
75-1
Leon Black now needs to turn his attentions to something new, with
Chris Dodd falling out of the presidential race. And this is a firm
that still very much wants to go public. The sale last year to Abu
Dhabi may just be an appetizer.
The Carlyle Group
80-1
They’ve done this twice already — first with CalPERS, and then
with Abu Dhabi. Never trust an addict.
Blackstone Group
100-1
Never say never with Blackstone, which probably
walked down the road a bit with other suitors before settling on
China. The goods here are damaged and depleted, but not beyond
repair.
Silver Lake Partners
150-1
That was it. Silver Lake isn’t yet big enough to justify another
sale, nor are its senior partners old enough. Good to get the
institutional seal-of-approval, though.
Goldman Sachs Capital Partners
Off the
board, since it never really owned itself to begin with. Its parent
bank, however, can be found on a board around the corner.