Activist Hedge Fund and PE

I've seen more movement amongst activist hedge funds getting involved with small and micro cap public companies. Acquiring a substantial amount of equity in the company, trying to gain board seats and help strategy/operations.

I was curious if anyone had seen a move between activist hedge funds and PE. It would seem to me that the skillset is somewhat transferable.

Thanks.

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Best Response

I don't know quite as much about activist HF's, but I have never seen someone move from an activist HF to a PE firm (which isn't to say it hasn't happened before, just that I haven't seen it). To be clear, I'm looking at this mostly from the context of a move from an activist fund to a pre-MBA PE associate position. Also, like I mentioned, I don't know that much about activist funds themselves, so I am not sure how common it is to go the other way.

I'd imagine the reason is because while you are doing things that are conceptually similar, when you break down the day to day work, it's not quite as transferable. At a PE firm, you are building lbo models and managing the minutiae of a process-heavy investment style, which doesn't cross over perfectly with the activist world.

 

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