Stonepeak Corp PE & Infra
Just curious about people's thoughts on Stonepeak PE and Infra PE. I know it is a growing firm and their infra focus is led by some strong senior members. They are breaking into new industry groups and growing in AUM quickly.
What is dealflow like? WLB? Compensation? Path to HBS or GSB? Are associates coming from strong banking groups? Culture?
In line with UMM and no carry
Stonepeak, more so than any other infra fund, has been trying to branch out into other strategies and focus areas in recent years. They started out as Blackstone's original infra team and spun out, leaning on the infra track records of two Macquarie guys. They grew exponentially up until their last flagship fund, where they closed on $14bn--a jump in line with other notable infra funds like ISQ, KKR, GIP, etc. Then one of their co-founders left a couple years ago and Stonepeak has powered ahead to hire a number of other ex-Macquarie folks across US, Europe and even Asia to the point where it's essentially Macquarie 2.0. The culture in turn has taken a hit. Brutal hours, sharp elbows, politics and ivory towers, etc. But again, this isn't too different from most other infra shops. And to top it off, I'm sure Stonepeak's ambition is to go public, meaning they'll have to expand beyond simply being an infra player. They launched a RE strategy last year and I'm sure will start a PE strategy later this year.
LPs have been complaining about the 4+ new strategy lines they've launched in the last coupel years since the co-founder left. It's a platform that's grown very successfully in its early years and I imagine they didn't expect the fundraising (and broader) environment to turn so quickly. Dealflow is on par with other infra firms--everything is full-blown auction at this point. Given the limited number of infra deals (globally), any GP claiming to have proprietary dealflow is completely talking out of their ass. Comp is on par with peers if not higher given how brutal the hours are. All in all a tough shop but they'll continue to succeed I'm sure. You'll find better culture elsewhere though.
So from the sound of it, culture wise Stonepeak is just as bad as GIP. Are there any Infra PE MF/UMM funds known to have a good culture? Brookfield, MIRA...?
Maybe KKR, but otherwise no not really as far as I know
del
what does "ivory towers" mean?
Got pretty far with them last year in a process and I had a positive experience overall with the firm. This is a really exciting platform to be a part of that is going places. They still call themselves an infra fund but I really don’t think they are, though infra is their core. They’ve got into healthcare, logistics and other sectors. I think they are trying to tie it all together to infra some how, calling healthcare “social infrastructure” but the reality is they’re a very smart group of people that have strong capital formation capabilities and will likely continue branching out.
I will say - the culture there is supposed to be brutal. Everyone I met with was super nice but they told me themselves this place is sweaty. One very senior person said the “culture is 70% Apollo”. They also promote quickly if you prove your mettle / make money for the firm and will ask you to move on if it’s not working.
What do you mean by "strong capital formation capabilities"? And when you say branching out, do you mean continue to raise money for their funds or start new strategies?
Fwiw, I have heard the same thing about the culture, nice people but the hours seem brutal
Know some of their team in digital infra (vs regular infra). really smart, very decent / polite to their bankers but also hear that it's not that way internally necessarily. Great comp and aggressively promote from within if you're good. Understand the Apollo comparison but they seem far less openly aggressive (but that may just be a facade)
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