What is tactical opportunities / opportunistic investment
Is Blackstone Tac opps a private equity business? Or is it a non-PE type of alternative investment? Or is tactical opportunities a form of hedge fund strategy?
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non-PE
bx tax ops only writes equity cheques, mostly minority stakes and in FIG (london team)
Very insurance focused tho
Is this technically true?
And how does Tac opps compensation compare to traditional PE?
Well this is just wrong - BTO can do whatever they like. They have done some amazing control private equity deals that have done very well, they do minority equity, mid market buy outs in interesting thematics, music rights investing, data centre development (huge platforms) and structured equity (convertible preferred deals - which are the same rights as equity but have downside protection due to hairs on the deal or valuation expectations if seller). They make as much as private equity and also work alongside private equity on many deals.
It does alot of private equity, buy outs and minority investing, structured equity etc. I read about their coreweave investment and also how they own Justin Biebers music rights. That is pretty cool...I think you got rejected. It is a top top shop.
Blackstone Tactical Opportunities was established to take advantage of market dislocations, special situations, and other time-sensitive opportunities that may not fit within the traditional private equity framework. The tactical opportunities team has a flexible mandate, which allows them to invest across a wide range of industries, asset classes, geographies, and capital structures.
The main difference between BTO and traditional private equity lies in the investment approach, time horizon, and fund flexibility.
Investment approach: Traditional private equity typically focuses on acquiring controlling or significant minority stakes in established, cash-generating companies with the intention of improving their operations and financial performance over time. These firms typically use a combination of equity and debt financing to make their investments. In contrast, BTO employs a more opportunistic approach, targeting special situations, distressed assets, or other unique opportunities that may arise from market dislocations or specific circumstances.
Time horizon: Traditional private equity investments often have a longer-term horizon, typically between five to seven years, as firms work to improve the performance of their portfolio companies and ultimately exit through a sale, merger, or public offering. BTO, on the other hand, can have a shorter investment horizon due to the nature of the opportunities they target. These investments may be held for a shorter period, depending on the specific situation and exit strategy.
Fund Flexibility: BTO has a more flexible investment mandate compared to traditional private equity. This allows them to invest in a wider range of asset classes, including public and private equity, credit, real estate, and infrastructure. Their opportunistic approach also enables them to invest in various capital structures, such as equity, debt, or hybrid securities.
Can you give an example of a market dislocation investment?
Oh I have no idea, I just typed the question into ChatGPT and it spat out my comment
Let’s not sugar coat it guys. Tac ops basically just gets the deals that BCP / BIP / BREA don’t want.
They act like it’s these super esoteric special sits deals meanwhile at best, it’s pref / debt + w / some stupid co-invest. Nothing special at all. Just the shit that the other groups don’t want to touch (aka garbage).
following
This is not correct at all. They do some really cool and interesting stuff. They have also exited a fair few control deals and platform roll-ups where they have done very very well. It is like an internal hedge fund, they structure for risk, but can really do whatever they want.
Yea this is not correct at all. They have done some very interesting and unique deals, along with other general private equity deals. Yes they have done some deals which were too complex for a standard LBO or the risk required some additional structure or thought, but that doesn't make them "reject" deals. Highly mis-informed and salty for an obvious rejection.
They buy a lot of non-performing loans from European banks that are over leveraged. They hire a lot from lev-fin teams as a result.
They don’t just take the deals the other teams don’t want:
BIP, BREP, etc don’t have distressed credit mandates and Credit has too low a risk tolerance for the type of deals Tac Opps does. Back in the GSO days there mightn’t have been room for Tac Opps but that time has passed.
No, tac ops doesn't do distressed. Just because people call it a "special sits" group doesn't mean it's true. Comps here are ASOF and APO HV. Maybe ASOF has a distressed "tilt", but certainly not BTO. Not at all. People stretch the definiton of special sits very far and Tac ops does just that. Yes GSO's distressed team lost a lot of heavy hitters (richman / JJ / Mollett / CDS dude) and had a string of very bad bets, but BX has other vehicles that can (and do) distressed -- tac ops is not one of them.
They do boing deals (imo) and have a strange culture. People joke about it and like to talk about how kids on WSO put it on this huge pedestal. And euro NPL is not distressed. Maybe 20 years ago lol but real distressed is very different. Does that mean it's a bad seat? No. I've seen some sharp ppl out there (and some very stupid). Just saying the BCP / BIP guy will be put above the BTO guy (again, my experience and views). Would shoot for BCP if I we're you. BCP probably best PE seat out there and no unique negative comments
Thoughts on BIP? Also, is it the BAAM team that does distressed that you were referring to?
Under the impression BX is not raising another distressed private credit private fund once this current one is done, that's the end of the strategy
Isn't BTO literally a meme now in some circles?
Had an interview with the London team for off-cycle last week in tac opps...trust me it isn't PE lmao
Sounds like you are an angry reject
Lol he has a vendetta
You literally work on some crappy minor stakes and you cannot exit into any reputable firm...its literally for PE rejects and the compensation/pay is horrible
Sounds like you were rejected tbh
But is he right?Is it true that Tac Opps is more similar to HF than PE (the very name sounds HF-ish)? Or is it in any way still a form of PE
BX Tac Opps is for PE reject... comp is low, exits are non-existent...what else do you want
Saw someone exit from tac ops to SKKY Partners
The only fund that legitimately has an edge in cpg
Wrong - many people have exited to the top top hedge funds or started their own funds...or they just stay at BTO because the pay is good?
It is true...I know ppl who work at BX PE and they tell me Tac Opps are literally full of PE rejects (check by their Linkedins they will have IB stint then end up in Tac Opps lmao)
It has a team of only 50 investment professionals. None or PE rejects...you are an angry kid who got rejected.
What doesn't fit as vanilla PE investments are handed by TacOps e.g. a 30% LBO with another co-investor in a smaller company compared to the sizes in which PE tends to invest.
So TacOpps is largely about non-PE?
No, they also take PE deals but only those that don't fit the traditional modus operandi of the PE side (e.g. companies with capital need but where traditional financing may not be beneficial for the target because of existing covenants).
Illustratively, for example, while PE may do mainly buy-outs, TacOps may do mainly structured equity.
TacOpps in my eyes also falls under PE, although not buyout. I work for a competitor within the space and if they are anything like us, they also approach diligence from a PE perspective (i.e. DD as if you would end up owning the business)
75% of what it does is private equity, same diligence, same value add, but its usually partnerships with existing management or founders. It is more partnership capital. Remaining 25% is structured equity and other really interesting thematic stuff.
Back in the day I rejected an internship offer in TactOps mostly because everybody was asking « what is TactOps » and though it was a sud-division of transaction services..
You guys need a reality check lol
You are acting like getting BCP/BIP is easy and BTO is filled with some 2nd tier analysts lol
i would be very happy to exit to BTO and if you think the exits are mediocre, check again
On the street, if you say you work at Tac Opps in BX everyones assumption (which is true) is that you didn't get a MF PE offer so you had to stick to BX TO...BX Tac Opps are literally for PE rejects simple tbh
I agree...I work at BX Infra PE in NYC and all the Tac Opps kids didnt have PE offers so are laughed at on the street for it
Lol you would prefer infra over BTO? Doesn't BTO do all the data centres? Infra is not a big strategy of BX either I assume
no you dont. Someone in BX infra would highly respect tac opps. They actually work on deals together on a fair few thematics. Also BTO does many more interesting things than a vertical or two in infrastructure...
“Ops on the street” says the literal Arma Partners AN1 who didn’t secure anything in his first entire analyst year and has the most BS track record of making shit up and posting spam.
You’d be sobbing on the crying wall if bx tacopps rescued you from whatever MM ur at mate have some honesty
This guy is a troll. It is a top shop with some of the best investors on wall Street (blitzer, Jas, etc.).
.
Your are such a loser, you are jealous from this guy and I will bet an arm that you don't work in BX, probably rejected by Tacc Opps and every other team.
The level of retard in this post is outstanding
Why is the general outlook on BX Tac Opps so negative whereas groups that do similar-sounding investments like Apollo Hybrid Value and Bain Capital Credit are highly revered?
Bump
It isn't Tac opps is a leading shop on wall Street...its just a few rejects like the intern guy above trying to hurt their rep. They have done some amazing deals and are one of the leading investment shops in the world do very very cool stuff.
This is so wrong. I work at a competitor and we haven't seen BTO on any of our deals, they legit are doing no deals at all or at least none of the relevant big ones
It is only negative based on what the one troll above says. It is a great shop and one of the only places that have seeded many hedge funds from BB PE
Still laughing at the fact that these guys call themselves TacOpps as if they're a finance version of the Navy Seals lmao
There's so much non-sense on this thread. As someone that worked at BX, tacopps was a very legit team of investors with a strong reputation. It was founded a decade+ ago with several senior guys from BCP and other teams around the firm (and no, they weren't rejects or people getting pushed out). The group was doing interesting / unique deals and raised a ton of money over the next several years, as they educated investors and companies that the 50-80% LTV, mid to high-teens part of the capital structure was here to stay. However, over time, groups within BAAM and GSO were launched with mandates that partially overlapped with BTO's mandate. So BTO's wings started to get clipped and there was more and more infighting over allocations on certain attractive deals. And then turnover at the mid-level started to bubble up as the pathway to being named an MD started to elongate. Then came the BXG incubation period. BXG did deals under the BTO banner, which helped boost returns for the BTO franchise for some period of time - until BXG launched its own fund and BTO lost the uplift it was receiving from BXG. Then they raised a smaller fund and lost some more people. At this point, it's still a highly reputable shop and great training ground that sends people to tier 1 funds (to places like Elliott, but not like Tiger). The slander is so overblown.
In your opinion, is its investment model closer to HF than PE?
It's very similar to PE in the way they set up their deal teams, conduct diligence, and structure their securities (which are almost always private / non-liquid). It is not HF-style investing at all.
Curious when you mentioned that it’s a good exit to places like Elliott, does it mean very few want to stay at Tact Opps over the long term?
Given Tact Opps takes a PE approach are traditional PE exits common?
(And is comp at Tact Opps comparable to BCP or Growth as you move up?)
Thanks!
...it pays more than growth and the SAME if not MORE as BX BCP (this is all the way up from Analyst to SMD). The people above have NO idea what they are talking about, it is one or two people than have been burnt by tac opps and are trying to slander it as others have said. I hear Tac Opps has an amazing culture and does super interesting deals.
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