You’ve seen a lot of places that were historically in the ~$5Bn fund size range raise monster $10Bn+ funds in recent years (think Genstar, GTCR, BDT, Clearlake, Platinum, CD&R, NMC, Veritas among others). How many of these are a product of a favorable fundraising environment vs. real, long-term differentiation / advantage? Where would you want to stake your career long term?
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CD&R has been around for a long time - best chance of sticking around. Platinum competes in less competitive segment of the PE market so they’ll be around. Veritas has a sector niche so decent.
I think Clearlake and Genstar are the “AARKs” of PE world. Great timing. Ultimately unclear externally why they have a sustainability competitive moat.
BDT has pretty severe key man risk - the business is completely built upon and contingent on the guy’s reputation and relationships.
Every private equity fund has "key man risk". It's just that some firms are further in the process of transition than others with varying degrees of success (Jon Gray at BX was smooth; Kewsong at Carlyle and Marc at Apollo were rockier). I had a few friends from my analyst class exit to BDT a few years back and they seem to be really enjoying their time so far. If the risk was truly that great, I'd highly doubt they'd have the retention levels they enjoy now. Given that they're clearly a premier firm with a $10B+ fund, you'd definitely have a leg up over your peers in banking if you were to choose to recruit out of there assuming you get an offer
Hhhhh