Private Equity Talks

What if you were to found a private equity firm that entirely outsourced the investment function and focused solely on operations? Impossible dream or the future direction of the market?
The Drawdown speaks to Stephen Branagan of Pantheon Ventures, who argues that it might not be such a crazy concept as it first appears. With LP and regulatory demands ever increasing and tech stacks increasingly complex, a firm specialising in ops could have an advantage when marketing to investors. 
Stephen and The Drawdown team discuss the pros and cons of an operations-first approach and whether this dream could ever become reality.

The Drawdown is joined by a panel of tokenisation experts to discuss how the technology can be used in private markets.

Jack Chong is an entrepreneur in residence at White Star Capital, based in New York. Prior to that, he spent time developing a bond issuance asset tokenisation company for sustainable finance. His current business endeavour aims to remove barriers for asset managers looking to adopt tokenisation.

Steven Lightstone is a regulatory partner in the investment management team at Morgan Lewis, based in the firm’s London office. He has particular experience advising the alternative asset industry on fintech and cryptoasset regulation.

Finally, Myles Milston joins us from Globacap, the fintech company he co-founded in 2017. Based in the UK, the firm focuses on digitalising private market workflows. Milston’s background is in banking and technology, and he is keen to bridge the gap between both industries.

Together, we discuss what tokenisation is and how it can be used in the field of private markets. We tackle the regulatory and operational barriers, and share some tips on how to overcome them.

The Drawdown is joined by Sarah Peasey, director of European ESG investing at Neuberger Berman, for a discussion on what ESG really means for each employee within the GP house.

Real Deals is joined by Lukas Ingelheim and Dan Bender, co-founders at Code & Co, and Peter Waleczek, managing partner at Flex Capital, for a case study on how the GP and tech due diligence provider are working together. As technical due diligence evolves, Code & Co highlights exactly what its work entails and the red flags it looks out for, plus how it differs from IT due diligence, digital due diligence, or cyber due diligence.

Real Deals editor Greg Gille is joined by David Wardrop, partner at Rutland Partners, to discuss how investors can break through to owner-managers and start building that relationship on the best possible footing.

This encompasses a lot - from the industry’s public image and educating the business community at large pre-deal, to eventually building a direct relationship and that crucial phase in the first few months post-deal, where the step change for management teams can be daunting.

Real Deals would like to thank Rutland Partners for sponsoring and contributing to this episode of the podcast.

The past two years have highlighted the importance of good liquidity management in private capital funds. The ability to quickly provide liquidity to portfolio companies and / or investors is an absolute necessity for private capital fund CFOs.

Fast forward to today - CFOs also have to contend with a rising interest rate and high inflation environment.

Against this backdrop, we caught up with Jeremy Slade of Hazeltree to find out: How are private fund CFOs evolving their approach to liquidity management?

Talya Misiri speaks with Michael Preston, partner at Cleary Gottlieb about the increased interest in sport by PE, one of the most successful PE-backed sports deals, how PE can manage reputational risks around these transactions and more.

Sam Fuller, managing director at Houlihan Lokey and Miles Otway, partner at Connection Capital, speak with Real Deals about the rise of trade buyers and how GPs are setting themselves up to win assets in competitive processes.

Michele Giddens, co-CEO at Bridges Fund Management and Sharon Johnson, COO of AgilityEco speak with Real Deals about the just transition and how it is being used in practice.

Real Deals is joined by Erik Osmundsen, partner at Verdane and Beth Houghton, partner & head of Impact Fund at Palatine, to discuss whether embedding an ESG strategy into portfolio companies can contribute to driving a higher price, and better returns, at point of exit.