“PE” at a hedge fund?
What does the “private team” at a large hedge fund like Viking or Baupost look like? Talking to a few HHs and they seem to be attractive roles (good comp, less bureaucracy and faster promos than my current fund, etc) but I still don’t really understand what they’re actually doing. Is it classic LBOs? Would be surprised since I never really see them in processes. Or is it more coinvest, minorities, etc? Know the Tigers of the world are just doing high flying growth equity but curious if any of the large hedge fund platforms are doing anything more interesting. At a MF now and the promotion path ahead of me is brutal so trying to see what else is out there.
Completely firm dependent.
At Elliott it is a true buyout team; they own Nielsen, Barnes & Noble, and a few others I can’t recall.
At Coatue or Atreides or D1 or Lone Pine, it’s more of a growth equity role in very large private companies such as xAI, SpaceX, Anthropic, Databricks, etc, with some earlier stage stuff sprinkled in.
Didn’t the Elliott PE team blow themselves up to smitherines?
What happened
D1 just rose a 1bn buyout for MM but agreed it’s mostly growth equity
Bump
It’s not LBOs in the classic MF sense. The private teams at HFs are usually doing opportunistic, flexible capital (sexy term for hybrid debt and quasi-equity) across situations that don’t really fit into a rigid PE box (which you would find in MF PE). A couple ideas that come to mind are structured minority deals, PIPEs, hybrids, growth-y rounds, rescue financings, or hard carve-outs rather than running a full auction LBO playbook (which as you know tends to drive prices increasingly high). They don’t want to get into battle against the MFs because they’d lose on price and obviously expertise, so they focus on situations where their speed, flexibility, and permanent capital are advantages. I've seen a few private teams from HF actually carve out and become turnaround PE firms.
From the deals I’ve seen on the other side, it was mostly restructuring-type situations or highly synergetic angles where they had low-hanging fruit and a pretty hard investment thesis. That’s where they can really differentiate.
Baupost for example is well known for structured/complex deals where you need creativity around downside protection and a mix of financial products you would never see in MF PE (although prefs have been around for a while now), while Viking has leaned more into growth equity/crossover style. You’ll also see them co-invest in club deals, but usually in off-market settings or when their public-market insights give them an angle (strong public to private angles that surely gives an edge, especially if they have been in the company for a while, climbing ownership). I had some of them as co-investors in a few deals and their DD is usually 5 days (we were looking for external LPs especially as the context of the deal was not your typical LBO).
Comp can be very strong and the org structures are flatter than the MFs, so I agree with you. The flip side is the deal flow is mostly opportunistic, so you won’t get the same volume and process reps as at a MF.
Thank you for the insightful response. Do these teams prefer any specific background? Rx, value oriented pe, distressed pe, etc I imagine? Or are they flexible and could take BB/EB IB folks too? Finally, any suggestions re post-mba roles that could help a graduate converge into one of these seats later on? Thank you!
Doesnt less volume = better hours?
So it's good pay, good hours, and stable institutions? Sounds great
Viking is a mix of GE and more family-office style of privates.
Viking PE is mostly thematic, mostly MM/LMM and quite hands-off (they don't get operationally involved at all). They don't have an army of associates because the diligence is lighter and more targeted and because they tend to make many small bets on a theme rather than writing huge equity checks into complex situations. This is a selling point for working there; it's PE with more of a HF lifestyle except much more outward facing (they avoid banked processes so it's a lot of cold outreach to founders/family owners/CEOs etc). On the flip side the dealmaking experience looks a lot more like LMM than MF (which may be good or bad depending on how you view it). The other potential problem with these big SMs is succession concerns - some of them have more structured privates teams than others but none has really gone through a leadership transition so hard to say what that ultimately becomes. Source: I interviewed there.
Different from OP that created the comment but agree with everything you said. Also interviewed with Viking PE and it was an immediate no for me when they told me they don't hire associates. Seemed like sharp people with a good track but even if its 'LMM' deals seems like terrible WLB without any junior support.
Dude that interviewed me also seemed to be gassed fwiw
Bump
Anyone know anything about Emblem, the new fund founded by the ex-Baupost guys?
Also interested in more info on Emblem. Seems like a solid team with decent momentum.
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