Blackstone Strategic Partners in 2019?
Search function yields some results that are a few years stale. Would be curious to see what the perception of BXSP in 2019, especially relative to other secondaries shops like Coller Capital, GS AIMs, and HarbourVest.
More broadly, am curious as to whether a secondaries shop is a good place to start a career at (as an analyst), given that company-level analysis may not be as granular as one might find on the direct invest side. If anyone has insights into where analysts / associates exit to, that would be great as well.
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Your understanding is wrong.
That is definitely not true, signed, someone who actually works in Secondaries
Secondaries are where people go to retire because they couldn't do real private equity. People internally at Blackstone look down on Strategic Partners.
I genuinely hate commenting on these dick measuring prestige contests but as someone who has been in the industry for a while, I chuckle at the thought of kids who have this convoluted sense of finance entering the industry.
Strategic Partners (SP) is one of the largest secondary funds in the world with a stellar track record to boot. They are one of a very few number of players who are able to charge a premium carry for their fund.
Of course, it's all relative. If you get an offer for BX PE and BX Strategic Partners, obviously take BX PE if direct investing is what you want to do. But let's play out a second scenario - you get a mid-level job at a $1bn MM PE fund and a mid-level job at BX SP. If money is one of your primary motivators, you would go for BX SP. I can't remember the size of the last fund they raised but let's say its's 10bn. Assume they make a 1.5x MOIC (historically, it's been higher than this). That's $5bn in profits. SP charges 12.5% carry - that's $625mn in carry. High level back of the envelope number but still.
Kid - look at that number and let that sink in. Now tell me again how people in secondaries are muppets who couldn't cut it in real PE.
By the way, there was another thread going on about a week back where someone was asking whether Goldman's AIMS platform would be a good way to launch a career. Humongous secondaries funds, well-respected co-investment platform, one of the last real fund of funds to not only survive but thrive post-crisis. Millions of dollars in carry every year made by the Senior Partners.
Buddy comes in and says its not a "real investing" job and FoF is where careers go to die. Smh......
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^ This. Secondaries are for muppets who couldn't make it in real PE
Says the guy who works in Corp dev and does not even know the difference between direct and primary
Have interviewed with this group and am also under the impression that secondary analysis is less granular than primary PE so not sure how exits compare to IB.
I'm surprised about the comment about the group being less respected in secondaries though, I thought they raised the largest ever secondary fund ($11B) and their returns are supposedlybetter than Tactical Opportunities, GSO and BAAM according to Blackstone earnings reports.
Largest secondary fund honors go to Adrian and Lex at the moment.
You’re right to say Strategic Partners has better returns than TacOpps and GSO, but these are different products with different risk/return characteristics. This is not to take away from SP’s returns, just pointing out a “apples vs orange“ comparison.
Ardian and Lex both targeting $12B but haven't completed fundraising yet
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