- Goldman Sachs unit Petershill is reportedly in talks to acquire a stake in private equity firm Permira
Goldman Sachs unit Petershill is reportedly in talks to acquire a stake in private equity firm Permira, according to The Wall Street Journal. The deal is rumored to be involving Petershill investing €500 million for a minority stake in Permira. And this deal would value Permira at over $5 billion. The talks could still fall through though.
At a valuation of over $5 billion, it would be further validation that investors are bullish about the growth and performance potential of private equity firms. A number of private equity firms increased in value after they shifted from partnership structures to corporations in order to be integrated into more indexes.
According to Preqin, private equity firms raised over $500 billion last year alone. And this brought total assets under management to over $4 trillion.
Sources with The Wall Street Journal also suggested that a unit of Black stone Group and Neuberger Berman Group’s Dyal Capital Partners also had an interest in buying a stake in Permira.
A number of private equity players have been selling stakes rather than raising funds by going public. Vista Equity Partners and Silver Lake have also sold stakes in their firms.
Permira is known as one of the oldest buyout firms in the UK. It launched in 1985 and has been operating as Schroder Ventures Europe until 2001.
And Permira has €44 billion in committed capital. And a few months ago, the firm closed on €11 billion for its flagship buyout fund.
Some of Permira’s successes include making more than double its investment in Hugo Boss. And in January, Permira revealed a deal to sell Duff & Phelps to a group of companies for $4.2 billion, which is more than double what Permira spent for the company in 2018.
Petershill also owns stakes in Accel-KKR, ArcLight Capital Partners, and Riverstone Holdings. Goldman Sachs also acquired United Capital Financial Partners in a $750 million deal in July 2019. One month later, Goldman Sachs Asset Management acquired a non-voting minority stake in Slate Asset Management.
