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Haven’t dealt with KPS in any processes but my general sense is that they are extremely talented operators and come into situations with specific plans in place and maintain strong labor / union relationships to get buy in at all levels. Very much a win/win mentality with a targeted approach (ie they won’t just buy a turd of a company because it’s cheap — they’ll only buy something if they legitimately think they have a differentiated insight into the asset). I’m sure they’re well behaved in processes too although a certain amount of sharp elbowedness is necessary in the space.
HIG, Platinum, et al seem to be more transactional deal guys with siloed operating teams more focused on near term clean up, cost reductions etc. vs dramatic strategic and operational turnarounds. These guys are more than willing to buy a shit company for cheap just because they can, lever it to the hilt, make some perfunctory operational improvements, and then try to flip it. With HIG in particular, the return profile is almost VC like in terms of deals that return 0x vs. 5x+. Given the opportunistic / vulture-like approach, they’re also extremely painful to deal with in processes, willing to exert leverage and retrade, make misleading claims to sellers and management teams re: their plans for the business, negotiate the hell out of every little thing in the legal docs, drag their feet on deals to maximize optionality, etc. In summary, just a pain to deal with from the seller and sellside advisor’s perspective.
Great answer, thanks. This is my high level understanding too.
RE: HIG though, I don't think the results of their individual deals have that much spread? Which fund is that specifically you're referring to? One of my good friends worked for them for a bit and I don't think their results were *that* different deal by deal.
Might be different funds. I was referring specifically to their “flagship” LMM LBO fund — I interviewed there years ago coming out of business school and an MD I spoke with described the returns like that. I think he actually did use the phrase “VC-like” and said when it’s all said and done they expect a 3-4x gross MOIC for the fund as a whole.
Ah yeah the actual fund is pretty consistent, but definitely more spread than a normal LBO shop, you are right.
I work at one of the firms you mentioned. I don’t think we have a terrible reputation or at least if we do it doesn’t seem to impact our work, we get shown all the deals we want to be shown and can even occasionally do proprietary stuff. Also bankers will work with you based on whether the senior wants to make a fee, not based on how nice you are to juniors. Management of PortCos are aligned because they always own shares.
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