Ahead of the Private Equity Wire Private Credit European Summit, Amit Bahri, Co-Head, Direct Lending Europe at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, talks to us about the early days of private credit, the tenets of GSAM’s senior direct lending strategy and playing devil’s advocate. Private Equity Wire (PEW): You started at Goldman Sachs in 2006 and made the transition to private credit in 2008, which is when direct lending really took off. How does the private credit market track now compared to when you started? Amit Bahri (AB): Private credit and direct lending were both terms that didn’t exist wh ..read more

Arsenal Capital Partners, a private equity firm specialising healthcare and industrial companies, has expanded its team with the addition of Raymond Hill as an Operating Partner. In his new role, Hill will work within the firm’s healthcare team and will focus on pharmaceutical services investment themes and portfolio companies. Most recently, Hill served as Chairman and CEO of biopharmaceutical data provider CorEvitas. Prior to CorEvitas, he was President of clinical research organisation InVentiv Clinical (now Syneos Health) and President of life sciences solutions provider IMS Health (now IQ ..read more

The private equity sector has its sights set on the US National Football League (NFL), with several firms quietly preparing funds that would exclusively make NFL investments to comply with potential ownership pre-conditions, according to a report by the Financial Times. The report cites three unnamed people briefed on the matter as revealing that a special committee of NFL owners has been reviewing ownership policy since last summer. One of the requirements under consideration is that firms looking to acquire stakes in franchises must do so via NFL-specific funds. According to the FT’s sources ..read more

The world’s largest private equity firm Blackstone has reported a 1% year-on-year increase in first-quarter distributable earnings – the cash used to pay dividends to shareholders – to $1.27bn from $1.25bn in Q1 2024, according to a report by Reuters. The report cites LSEG data in highlighting said growth, which was due to an increase in fee-related earnings and partly offset by a decline in income from asset divestments, translated to distributable earnings per share of 98 cents, slightly higher than the average Wall Street analyst estimate of 96 cents. Blackstone’s fee-related earnings, whic ..read more

Shares of Esprit increased by 24% to HKD0.26 ($0.03) on Thursday morning, marking a 39% gain since the company announced its discussions with a potential investor last week, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.  However, Esprit’s shares have seen an overall 38% decline this year due to expanding losses, swelling to HKD2.24bn ($286.0m) in 2023 from HKD642m in 2022. On Thursday, Esprit said that it had entered into a nonbinding agreement with an unidentified investor who may acquire a stake in the company and assist in restructuring its European operations. Esprit added that it ..read more

Unigestion, an independent asset manager specialising in mid-market private equity transactions, has appointed Jordan Dimmock as Senior Vice President within its global secondaries team. He will be based in London. In his new role, Dimmock will source and underwrite transactions for the sixth vintage of Unigestion’s secondaries strategy. Dimmock joins from abrdn, where he began his private equity career in 2014 and was responsible for underwriting, executing and monitoring over $1.5bn of transactions, including GP-led transactions and LP stakes. The sixth vintage of Unigestion’s secondaries st ..read more

Alter Domus, a provider of tech-enabled fund administration, private debt and corporate services for the alternative investment industry, has gone live on Temenos’ automated Multifonds fund management platform. Alter Domus is headquartered in Luxembourg and has large operations in the US. The provider employs around 5,100 across 38 offices globally. Alter Domus is solely focused on alternative investments and oversees $2.2tn of AUM. According to a press release, with the ELTIF 2.0 regulations coming into effect in January 2024, making alternative investments more accessible to a large pool of ..read more

Private investment house Ardian has partially exited its investment in Planisware, a B2B SaaS software provider to the project economy industry, following the company’s IPO. Planisware’s Co-Founders have retained a majority stake in the business. According to a press release, the IPO will enable Planisware to “increase its visibility and brand awareness, further accelerating its development”. The company’s shares will be listed on Euronext Paris with a market capitalisation above €1m, with Ardian continuing to support Planisware post-IPO through its remaining 5% stake. Ardian first acquired it ..read more

One Equity Partners (OEP) has completed the sale of Walki Group Oy, a European supplier of packaging and engineered materials solutions, to Japanese paper products technology company Oji Group. According to a press release, during its ownership of Walki, OEP supported the company’s growth by enabling the execution of acquisitions, which strengthened its market position and broadened its product offering. In a statement, Leif Frilund, CEO of Walki, said: “OEP’s expertise has been instrumental in the company’s ability to grow organically and through transformational M&A, while maintaining a ..read more

Software-focused private equity firm Sunstone Partners has invested in Accuhealth, a healthcare technology company providing remote patient monitoring and chronic care management solutions. Accuhealth’s solutions encompass hardware, proprietary software and clinical monitoring for physician practices and health systems in the US. Sunstone Partners’ investment is intended to support the firm’s future growth and the expansion of the its service offerings, according to a press release. As part of the investment, Chris Schmaltz, previously Chief Value-Based Care Officer at Panoramic Health, will b ..read more