The Carve-Out | Skydance soar, ESG credit gains, secondaries surge

This week in private equity

📺 Paramount , owner of Paramount Pictures movie and television studios, the CBS television network and CBS News , as well as a takeover target of private equity firm Apollo Global Management, Inc. , is to merge with Skydance , according to a report by CBS News. Read more 

📰 Despite often being criticised as “woke” and anti-capitalist in the US, ESG, one of Wall Street’s most controversial labels, is quietly finding a foothold in the growing private credit market. Data from Preqin reveals that of the $156bn raised by private credit funds last year, about 16% targeted ESG goals, the highest share seen since at least 2014. Read more 

📈 As liquidity constraints put pressure on the private equity industry, the secondaries market is expected to grow substantially over the next twelve months, with fundraising and deal flow set to expand, according to Investec ’s latest report on secondaries. Read more 

💪 Global mergers and acquisitions activity has maintained the positive momentum achieved at the start of 2024, with deals completed during the second quarter improving upon the same period last year, according to research from WTW ’s Quarterly Deal Performance Monitor. Read more  

👉 The Carlyle Group has appointed Matt Savino as its new Head of Global Capital Markets following the departure of Brian Lindley who held the role for over seven years of his more than 13-year stint with the company, according to a report by Pensions & Investments. Read more 

💼 The Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System, which manages $23.1bn in assets, has committed up to $110m to various private equity funds, according to a report by Pensions & Investments citing officials at the pension fund. Read more

The week in numbers

🤝 $4.5bn – Bain Capital , a US private investment firm with around $185bn of AUM, is to acquire wealth management software company Envestnet, Inc in a deal valued at $4.5bn, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. Read more 

⬆️ $3.4bn – Hahn & Co, a South Korean private equity firm founded by former Morgan Stanley banker Scott Sang-Won Hahn, has raised $3.4bn for a new buyout fund, making it the largest single-country focused vehicle in Asia this year, according to a report by Bloomberg. Read more 

🗞 $1.2bn – MetLife Investment Management , the institutional asset management business of MetLife, has formed a new $1.2bn private equity fund of funds, significantly boosting the amount of private capital the insurer manages for outside investors. Read more  

📑 70% – Some 70% of finance firms in the US, Asia, Europe (including the UK) and the Middle East, collectively responsible for more than $221.75bn in AUM, believe private debt will be the first asset to be tokenised and routinely traded digitally, according to new global research conducted by industry association Global Digital Finance . Read more 

Latest Private Equity Wire research

ESG’s journey from a tick-box exercise to an all-encompassing lens for investment continues – influenced by shifts in sentiment, regulatory developments, macro-economic turbulence and wider considerations of climate change and social impact. Essential for progress is an alignment of LP and GP priorities and incentives – Private Equity Wire’s latest insights report, Aligning on Values: The LP-GP conversation on ESG, aims to explore both sides of the conversation.  

Access the report 

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