S&P Global Market Intelligence offers our top picks of global private equity news stories and more published throughout the week.
Blackstone Inc. Chairman and CEO Stephen Schwarzman expects a landmark development for the publicly traded alternative asset manager sometime in 2022: $1 trillion in AUM.
Schwarzman made the prediction during Blackstone's fourth-quarter 2021 earnings call, noting that the firm is on track to reach the milestone about four years ahead of schedule. The company's 2018 forecast had it hitting $1 trillion of AUM in 2026.
The target date moved up after what Schwarzman described as a "remarkable" 2021, with the company setting new records on a variety of performance metrics, including record highs for fee-related and distributable earnings. Fundraising in 2021 brought in more than a quarter-trillion dollars, boosting AUM 42% for the year to a total of $881 billion.
For more on the firm's record 2021 and outlook for 2022, click here.
CHART OF THE WEEK: Private equity firm performance rankings
⮞ Technology-focused middle-market firm Accel-KKR LLC topped the 2021 edition of the annual HEC-DowJones Private Equity Performance Rankings with what professor Oliver Gottschalg, who developed the rankings, described as a "1-in-1,000-type" of performance over a 10-year period.
⮞ Tech- and software-focused firms have been top performers in the rankings in recent years, highlighting one potential path to private equity success over the past decade.
⮞ While big firms "tend to grow themselves to death" and drop off Gottschalg's rankings, he is working with an assistant to understand why some large firms, including Hellman & Friedman LLC and Clayton Dubilier & Rice LLC, have hung in there. Stay tuned.
FUNDRAISING AND DEALS
* The Carlyle Group Inc. finalized its buyout of cloud computing and data center service company Involta LLC from M/C Partners.
The private equity firm and Blackstone Inc. are exploring making a joint bid for Novartis AG's Sandoz AG generics unit, alongside other potential buyers such as EQT AB (publ) and previous owner, the Struengmann family.
* Vista Equity Partners affiliates and Evergreen Coast Capital Corp., an Elliott Investment Management LP affiliate, signed a deal to buy Citrix Systems Inc. for $16.5 billion in cash, including the assumption of the cloud-computing company's debt.
* Funds managed by Apollo Global Management Inc. affiliates will provide a $760 million minority investment to global media company Legendary Entertainment.
* Cinven Ltd. will acquire U.K.-based life insurance company International Financial Group Ltd.
ELSEWHERE IN THE INDUSTRY
* Great Hill Partners LP raised $4.65 billion for the Great Hill Equity Partners VIII LP fund, which will target middle-market technology-enabled companies, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing co-founder and Managing Director Chris Gaffney.
* InfraVia Capital Partners and Irish fixed broadband group eir Ltd. will form a fiber joint venture in Ireland with the aim of reaching 1.9 million premises by the end of 2026.
* Nonantum Capital Partners LLC secured $575 million for its second private equity vehicle.
* ArchiMed SAS' MED I fund exited French health ingredients developer Fytexia SAS in a deal with buyer Associated British Foods PLC.
FOCUS ON: HEALTHCARE SERVICES
* KKR & Co. Inc., Permira Advisers Ltd., Bain Capital LP, CVC Capital Partners Ltd., Carlyle and PAI Partners are weighing making preliminary bids of up as much as €2 billion for a controlling interest in Spanish fertility company IVI-RMA, Reuters reported, citing unnamed sources.
* Silverfleet Capital Partners agreed to divest its stake in U.K.-based fertility clinic operator Care Fertility Holdings Ltd. to Nordic Capital.
* Primary care physician group Physician Partners received a $500 million investment led by Kinderhook Industries LLC.