PE Daily: Silver Lake Returns With a New Megafund | Shakeup at Blackstone’s Hedge-Fund Business | BV Investment Partners to Buy Outsourcing Company (The Wall Street Journal)
Good day and welcome to the Private Equity Pro newsletter. Even given the tech-buyout giants’ history of pushing the fundraising envelope, the latest effort from Silver Lake may come as a surprise. WSJ Pro Private Equity’s Preeti Singh and Laura Cooper report that the firm is back on the fundraising trail, less than a year after announcing the final close of a $20 billion predecessor. Coming on the heels of news that Vista Equity Partners, Thoma Bravo and Francisco Partners are also marketing new funds, it looks like we’ll have a handful leading tech investors competing for investor dollars.
These Tigers Like Salad and Sneakers (Institutional Investor)
At least four prominent hedge fund firms are poised to cash in on the Allbirds and Sweetgreen IPOs. They may not be in the fledgling tech, life sciences or biopharma industries. But on Monday evening, two companies that boast eco-friendly products filed updated plans to go public, and each of them counts Tiger Cubs or other related felines, along with other hedge funds, among their largest investors.
$2.6 Billion Quant Hedge Fund Joins the Rush to Crypto (Bloomberg Quint)
(Bloomberg) — When Chris Taylor’s money-printing Dogecoin trade was wiped out in the $650 billion crypto crash back in May, the stakes were low. The 37-year-old was simply having fun YOLO trading from his personal account. But now things are getting serious as Taylor helps spearhead a digital-currency initiative in his day job as senior investment partner at GSA Capital. The $2.6 billion quant hedge fund is joining the likes of Steve Cohen and Alan Howard looking to profit from the famous volatility and inefficiencies across the now-$2.6 trillion market. That’s as long as Taylor and his fast-money peers can avoid getting crushed in the next crash.
Thrasio Raises $1 Billion in Series D Funding (Finsmes)
Thrasio, a Boston MA-based consumer goods company, raised $1 Billion in Series D funding. The round, which was in addition to the $650m incremental debt facility announced last month and brought total funding to more than $3.4 billion, was led by Silver Lake and Advent International with participation from Upper90, Oaktree Capital Management, L.P., PEAK6 Investments and Corner Capital. The company intends to use the funds to continue acquiring brands – both domestically and internationally – while expanding distribution through additional channels.
Tuesday 10/26 Insider Buying Report: TCBI, RMCF (Nasdaq.com)
At Texas Capital Bancshares, a filing with the SEC revealed that on Friday, Director Larry L. Helm purchased 5,000 shares of TCBI, for a cost of $60.52 each, for a total investment of $302,600. Texas Capital Bancshares is trading up about 2.1% on the day Tuesday. This buy marks the first one filed by Helm in the past twelve months. And at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, there was insider buying on Thursday, by Bradley Louis Radoff who bought 13,570 shares for a cost of $8.50 each, for a total investment of $115,345. Before this latest buy, Radoff purchased RMCF on 7 other occasions during the past twelve months, for a total investment of $1.02M at an average of $7.84 per share. Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory is trading off about 0.6% on the day Tuesday. Radoff was up about 2.6% on the buy at the high point of today’s trading session, with RMCF trading as high as $8.72 at last check today.
Mark Zuckerberg Trades $26M In Facebook Stock (Benzinga)
Mark Zuckerberg, COB And CEO at Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), made a large buy and sell of company shares on October 21, according to a new SEC filing. What Happened: A Form 4 filing from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission states that Mark Zuckerberg exercised options to purchase 62,300 Facebook shares for $0 on October 21. They then sold their shares on the same day in the open market. They sold at prices ranging from $338.08 to $341.58 to raise a total of $26,359,470 from the stock sale.
The Sr. Vice Pres., CFO of Steris (NYSE: STE) is Buying Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Today, the Sr. Vice Pres., CFO of Steris (STE), Michael Tokich, bought shares of STE for $1.36M. Following Michael Tokich’s last STE Buy transaction on October 13, 2020, the stock climbed by 49.2%. This recent transaction increases Michael Tokich’s holding in the company by 40.06% to a total of $11.75 million.
