KKR

The Great Wall of Capital

March 14, 2019March 14, 2019 by Mike

I frequently wonder, “Does it makes sense to think of EM PE as an industry anymore?”

Two recent research releases — one pertaining to fundraising and one to investment — led me to ponder this question anew.

On the fundraising side, EMPEA Industry Statistics show PE / VC funds targeting Emerging Asia have raised $152 billion over the last three years. Of that:

China-dedicated funds have earmarked $70B (N.B. this excludes government guidance funds);
Pan-Asia / regional funds have captured $57B; and,
Country-dedicated or sub-regional funds constitute the remaining $25B.

During the same period, funds targeting all other EM regions raised only $19B (see below).

Last year was a blowout, with nearly $70B raised for Asia-focused PE / VC funds, with a paltry $7B raised across all other EM regions (see below).

Asia has gone from capturing 65% of EM PE fundraising in 2012 to 91% in 2018.

Does it make sense to think of a unified industry when there’s an abundance of capital commitments in Asia, and scarcity everywhere else?

And what are these people who are throwing money at China thinking? (~75% of capital has gone to USD funds over the last three years).

This gets to point two. Bain’s Global Private Equity Report 2019 reveals that $81B was invested in Chinese start-ups in 2018 (32% of global VC capital invested).

Yet, EMPEA’s stats show only $28B in PE / VC investment in China for the year.

A gap of $53B is enormous. It may be down to methodology, but I suspect a large part of that gap is due to the wide array of non-financial investors deploying capital in the tech ecosystem (we talked about this in Sep ’17).

If, in fact, EM PE / VC funds aren’t driving the bulk of the activity in China’s new-economy businesses, then what does that tell us about the asset class as a vehicle for accessing private markets opportunities?

One thing it tells us is that the tent is getting bigger. The universe of players and strategies for EM private markets is expanding, such that it’s difficult to shoehorn the multiplicity of actors into the confines of an industry. (See, for example, our newsletter from last May).

But more to the point, I think it suggests that LPs should reconsider whether traditional asset allocation buckets are an appropriate framework for thinking about long-term investments in EM.

What do you think?

Alla prossima,
Mike

———

Очень Плохие Новости

Look, I know nothing about the incarceration of Mike Calvey and his colleagues from Baring Vostok beyond what I’ve read in the press. But I take Mike’s statements about his arrest being a well-connected businessman’s ploy to gain leverage in an arbitration dispute in London at face value.

I interviewed Mike six years ago, and initially, I held out hope that his view on the ability to do business in the market might be vindicated — that independent courts would adjudicate a commercial dispute in a “non-strategic” sector, and that he wouldn’t be locked in a cell for seemingly capricious reasons. But, increasingly, it appears like a garden-variety case of state capture.

———

China’s Private Sector

In case you haven’t been paying attention to the evolution of China’s political economy, the FT’s Henny Sender wrote two excellent articles last month that merit your consideration:

Marinate on the following quotes:

Chinese entrepreneurs will privately admit that a bigger motivation for them to sell their businesses [to PE firms] now is the loss of confidence in their own government.

The country’s entrepreneurs have never felt more threatened.

In President Xi Jinping’s China there is no such thing as a truly private company. No corporate entity can say no to Beijing, whether its ownership is in the hands of official or nominally private entities.

What are the actions of the country’s entrepreneurs telling us?

Also, Henny cites a JPMorgan statistic that reveals China’s balance of payments data can’t account for $46B in capital ~~flight~~ outflows per quarter since 2016, “suggesting wealthy Chinese are still finding ways to evade [capital control] restrictions.”

Ruchir Sharma, Head of Emerging Markets and Chief Global Macro Strategist at Morgan Stanley, once shared the helpful heuristic, “follow the locals.” If elites are seeking to get their funds out of the country, what does that tell us?

Reminder: China-dedicated PE / VC funds have raised $70B over the last three years.

P.S. According to the aforementioned Bain & Co. report, Internet / tech companies have been the principal driver of PE growth in Greater China (see below).

P.P.S. Bain & Co. say the median EBITDA multiple for deals in China’s new-economy companies is 31x. Not a typo.

———

Factfulness

John Authers had a delightful newsletter that touched upon Factfulness, the last testament of Hans Rosling, the energetic man who used bubble charts to smash preconceptions about the state of the world. John’s punchline is that everyone should probably invest more in EM. (*saved you a click*)

I was so taken by John’s write-up that I immediately purchased a copy of Factfulness and read it in a day. It’s quite fun!

Hans shared 10 “Factfulness Rules of Thumb” to help make sense of the world and its figures. And lo and behold, when I received a copy of KKR’s Annual Letter, I saw: (i) ~50 million retirees and pensioners have exposure to the firm’s investments; and, (ii) it generated ~$1.1 billion in management fees in 2018.

And then I thought: FACTFULNESS RULE #5! Lonely numbers are impressive, so get them in proportion!

Amazing. Using simplifying assumptions, on average, each pensioner is paying KKR $22 each year to manage a sliver of their retirement savings.

———

From the Bookshelf

Consider now an old man who complains
Excessively about his death to come.
Nature would justly cry out louder still
And say in bitter words, ‘Away, you rogue,
With all these tears and stop this sniveling.
All life’s rewards you have reaped and now you’re withered,
But since you always want what you have not got
And never are content with that you have,
Your life has been unfulfilled, ungratifying,
And death stands by you unexpectedly
Before the feast is finished and you are full.
Come now, remember you’re no longer young
And be content to go; thus it must be.’
She would be right, I think, to act like this,
Right to rebuke him and find fault with him.
For the old order always by the new
Thrust out gives way; and one thing must from another
Be made afresh; and no one ever falls
Into the deep pit and black Tartarus.

— Lucretius, On the Nature of the Universe (Oxford World’s Classics: 2008)

# # #

Haven’t signed up for our newsletter yet? Sign up now.

# # #

The information presented in this newsletter is for informational purposes only. Portico Advisers does not undertake to update this material and the opinions and conclusions contained herein may change without notice. Portico Advisers does not make any warranty that the information in this newsletter is error-free, omission-free, complete, accurate, or reliable. Nothing contained in this newsletter should be construed as legal, tax, securities, or investment advice.

An Extractive Industry

July 19, 2018July 30, 2018 by Mike

I remember it like it was yesterday.

30 years ago, my father — God rest his soul — dragged me to the hardware store, with the promise that yet another of my boyhood weekends would be spent “building character.”

But this weekend was different.

Instead of heading home after securing the lumber and dirt, we stopped by a Toys “R” Us.

Dad told me to look around while he spoke with a manager, and when I sauntered back to the front of the store, the manager was retrieving — ever so delicately — a Nintendo Entertainment System from a locked display case. My Dad’s outstretched hands rose to the ceiling, as if offering a prayer, ready to catch the box should the manager tumble from the ladder.

Nintendo. Humankind’s third-greatest invention (after the wheel and the Gutenberg press).

That trip to Toys “R” Us was one of the most joyful moments of my childhood. I am certain that I am not alone — Toys “R” Us was an iconic company that enriched the lives of millions of children.

And private equity destroyed it.

Let’s not mince words: leveraged buyouts (LBOs) constitute an extractive industry.

In the case of Toys “R” Us, Bain Capital, KKR, and Vornado took the company private in a $6.6B LBO in 2005. It is now bankrupt and closing all of its stores — without paying employees any severance.

In the year of the acquisition, the company generated $11.2B in annual sales, and the linked article says their biggest competitors at the time were the discount retailers Wal-Mart and Target. (Amazon’s shares were ~$35, fwiw).

Revenue was never a problem. Net sales never dipped below $11.3B (in fact they exceeded $13B between 2007-13). However, according to SEC filings, Toys “R” Us’s debt burden jumped from $1.86B at acquisition to $5.5B in the fiscal year after the deal, and annual interest expense climbed from $130m in the year of the acquisition to $400m+ beginning in 2006 (see charts). Optimizing capital structures for whom, one might ask.

The LBO firms were on the take from the get-go. According to SEC filings, “upon consummation of the Merger, [Toys “R” Us] paid the Sponsors a fee in the aggregate amount of $81 million for services rendered and out-of-pocket expenses.”

In addition, SEC filings show that between 2005-17, Toys “R” Us paid out aggregate “Sponsor management and advisory fees” of $204m. An analysis in The Atlantic suggests there may have been $128m in (incremental?) transaction fees as the company bought up KB Toys (another Bain Capital bankruptcy special) and other toy retailers.

Consider that between 2014-16, when Toys “R” Us was posting losses of $867m, $256m, and $48m, the company paid out advisory fees of $22m, $18m, and $6m. In other words, in the three years that the private equity sponsors were overseeing losses before taxes of nearly $1.2B, they still drew fees of $46m.

That giant sucking sound you hear is LBO firms hoovering out the value from a cash-generating company. One that likely could have remained a going concern, had the LBO firms not forced down such an onerous debt burden.

Again, 30,000 employees were fired without receiving severance. This is Dickensian villainy at its finest. It evokes The Ghost of Tom Joad.

The FT reports that some of KKR’s pension fund clients “are re-examining their relationship with the investment group amid anger over the treatment of workers at the bankrupt retailer.” They should.

But they shouldn’t stop there — they should re-evaluate their investments in LBOs altogether.

Here’s the dirty little secret: when pensions invest in LBO funds, they are fueling inequality.

The entire LBO model is predicated on bogging down cash-generating businesses with debt, and compelling managements’ hands to create efficiency gains (i.e., layoffs). In other words, thousands of people must lose their jobs and benefits, and be plunged into a state of precarity, in order for pensioners to remain secure in their stipends. It is absolutely zero-sum.

One of the most rigorous takedowns of the LBO model is Eileen Applebaum and Rosemary Batt’s Private at Equity Work. I highly recommend it.

Notably, one of their conclusions is that, unlike LBOs, private equity investments in small and midsize companies can drive meaningful business growth and innovation. I — and others — would argue that the opportunities for shared value creation are even greater in emerging and frontier markets.

When I came up with Portico’s ethos, I jotted down the following:

Value creation > value extraction
Build something that increases the general welfare. While there are riches to be made in value extraction, we do not believe in doing well at the expense of others. Spread dignity.

The fate of Toys “R” Us is precisely the type of BS I had in mind when I wrote those lines.

I would encourage all investors to consider the long-term consequences of the LBO model, and to eschew such extractive forms of investment.

Alla prossima,
Mike

P.S. The newsletter is taking a hiatus in August. See you in September.

—

Raising a Fund

At Portico, we believe in fund managers who are trying to build businesses and increase prosperity across the world.

In a sense, Portico was founded as an anti-gatekeeper. We believe that too many service providers in this industry operate in a black box, and that this lack of transparency ultimately hurts everyone.

With that in mind, we created the Informal Guide to Raising Your First Fund. Our goal with this product is to empower fund managers with the knowledge they need to develop an institutional-quality pitchbook. We’ve bundled it with a 27-page sample pitchbook to maximize its practical utility, and the feedback we’ve received tells us it’s equally relevant for managers raising funds III, IV, and beyond.

Given the exceedingly difficult fundraising environment, we’re pleased to announce that we are now offering it for only $149. It’s more important to us that a greater number of firms succeed — and that the industry develop — than that we sit on useful knowledge.

Invest in yourself. As our next story demonstrates, it’s only going to get tougher for EM managers to raise capital.

—

Abraaj: Redux

(For background, read parts I, II, and III)

This is way bigger an exposure than anyone expected … What is shocking is that the company invested almost 10 percent of its total assets and all their investment book with one company.

•

I am surprised that the company had more than 70 percent of its 1.5 billion-dirham investment portfolio exposed to a single fund and this was never flagged by the auditors or questioned by the shareholders.

These two quotes come from a Bloomberg article on Air Arabia’s disclosure that it faces a $336m exposure to funds managed by Abraaj.

That is a lot of granola. But it’s only part of the story.

Abraaj executed a pre-IPO investment in Air Arabia in 2007, and it secured two board seats in the process. Arif Naqvi retained his position on the board through 2017 (though he didn’t show up to the first three meetings in 2017).

Somehow, nobody seemed to see a conflict of interest in Air Arabia directing “all their investment book” to a board member’s firm?

It gets worse. The Wall Street Journal reports that, “Money originating from Air Arabia was used to replenish the [Abraaj Growth Markets Health Fund], according to people familiar with the situation. KPMG’s review of the fund didn’t mention this, one of those people said.”

KPMG, you may recall, was the firm Abraaj selected to examine the books of its healthcare fund after this whole imbroglio erupted in the press. KPMG is also the auditor of Air Arabia (among other Abraaj portfolio companies).

⁂

And then there’s the bombshell.

A separate Wall Street Journal article reveals that PricewaterhouseCoopers, a provisional liquidator for Abraaj Holdings, “have ‘been unable to obtain standalone annual financial statements or management accounts’ for the holding company, a situation they described as ‘highly irregular.’”

Absolutely extraordinary. It’s a sentence worth reading again.

According to the Journal, the PwC report goes on to say:

This lack of financial record-keeping raises the question of how the company’s directors were able to ensure the company was solvent and being effectively managed.

•

Investment management fees revenue had, for some years, been insufficient to meet its operating costs.

•

Any liquidity shortfall was largely funded through new borrowings.

Reuters reporting adds that “Abraaj’s total debt stood at $1.07 billion … including $501.4 million in unsecured debt and $572.4 million [in] secured debt.”

The launch of the $6B mega-fund may be viewed in a new light.

⁂

The whole situation stinks.

And the stink is on many hands.

Who was doing due diligence? With what documents? Where was the fund administrator?

Institutions were throwing money at Abraaj. Washington State Investment Board, for example, unanimously approved an investment of up to $250m, plus fees and expenses, in the mega-fund, “based on Abraaj’s solid overall investment performance, large, institutionalized team … [and] a consistent investment and risk underwriting process applied globally.”

During the preceding Private Markets Committee meeting, Hamilton Lane “discussed [Abraaj’s] approach to investing, reputation, culture, track record, and currency risk” and supported the staff’s recommendation to invest in the fund.

They’re not the only ones. It’s just that their minutes are public.

Consider, for example, the long list of third parties that provided Abraaj the equivalent of a Good Housekeeping Seal of approval:

Abraaj reportedly received its third A+ rating from the UN Principles for Responsible Investment last year.
Arif Naqvi was on the Board of the UN Global Compact and a Founding Commissioner of the Business and Sustainable Development Commission
He is also a member of “The B Team” — a self-appointed group of business leaders that seeks to advance ESG, etc. Literally the first challenge on their website is, “Drive full transparency: be open, transparent and free from corruption, with good governance and accountability at all levels of our organizations.”
The Harvard Business School and Kennedy School connections.
The World Economic Forum.
Gatekeepers.
Auditors.
PR firms and the press.
Etc.

If there is one lesson from this fiasco, it is that it pays to do your own work.

Also, don’t chase shiny objects.

Fin.

P.S. As we suggested in March, it appears that LPs in the Africa fund are looking for a new GP to manage out the assets.

—

Small Is Beautiful in CEE

EMPEA recently released a report on private markets in CEE and it’s really quite good. My fundamental takeaway from the report is that the region attracts little capital — between $500m and $1.5B annually between 2009-17 — but this lack of capital is why (a handful of) investors like it.

Consider that, according to the PitchBook data in the study, the median Eastern European buyout multiple between 2006-17 was 5.8x — the lowest multiple globally.

Admittedly, there were few transactions that provided data points for PitchBook, so let’s look at the other end of the spectrum: as of December 2016, EBRD’s portfolio of CEE funds — which is, like, every CEE fund ever — has delivered roughly 7.5% net across all vintages. It’s not an exceptional number, but private equity’s not about investing in an index.

Moreover, it’s not like pension funds — which aren’t pursuing EBRD’s development mandate — are doing much better. According to the American Investment Council’s 2018 Public Pension Study, the median U.S. pension fund’s private equity portfolio delivered a 10-year annualized net return of 8.6%.

Anyway, as I read the briefing, I reflected upon Portico’s thought piece from last December — Does EM PE Scale? — and decided that what’s happening in CEE is a beautiful outcome. The GPs and LPs interviewed for EMPEA’s piece seemed happy with the status quo: most investors have mistaken perceptions of the region’s risks, so they don’t invest in it; and those LPs that do invest in the region have found manager relationships they value across cycles.

Maybe EM PE is an artisanal industry.

—

Insomnolent in India

Bain & Co. released the 2018 edition of their India Private Equity Report. Lots of charts. Lots of things moving up and to the right.

Bain asked respondents to its survey, “What keeps you awake at night?”

The top three responses:

Mismatch in valuation expectations (~75% of respondents)
Challenges to maintain high level of returns (~55% of respondents)
Lack of attractive deal opportunities (~50% of respondents)

Those seem like … the core elements of running a PE business? No wonder so many Indian GPs are happy to take my calls at 2am IST — they’re not sleeping!

Funnily enough, respondents were least concerned about, “Approaching end of fund life with unliquidated assets” (~3% of respondents).

Now, Bain’s survey had 39 respondents out of a universe of active investors they estimate at 491. But I wonder, would the percentage be much different if the sample size quadrupled?

—

Turkey: Value Trap?

Last November, we asked if Turkven’s Seymur Tari was precipitating a market turn in Turkey. After seven years of declining business and consumer confidence, was the country on the cusp of a resurgence?

Well. After the latest round of elections, the president’s appointment of his son-in-law as the head of the country’s treasury and finance ministry, and changes to the rules for appointing the central bank governor, one wonders if all those assets trading at a discount might constitute a value trap.

The IMF forecasts gross external financing requirements of ~25% of GDP (equal to ~$200B) each year through 2023.

Turkey’s policymakers confront a delicate dance, indeed.

—

From the Bookshelf

There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate — died of malnutrition — because the food must rot, must be forced to rot.

The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.

— John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (Bantam Books: 1970)

# # #

Haven’t signed up for our newsletter yet? Sign up now.

# # #

The White Stripe

March 15, 2018July 30, 2018 by Mike 1 Comment

A small print of Jody Clark’s “Keep Treading” hangs on a wall in my office. It’s a picture that I first saw at the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (“BJJ”) gym where I started training last fall. It shows a man in a gi trying to stay afloat in the ocean. An eel is wrapping around his legs and pulling him asunder, while a collection of sea nettles threatens to sting him if he reaches out his arms.

It’s an apt metaphor for the travails of a white belt in BJJ. As Sam Harris describes it, “The experience … is akin to falling into deep water without knowing how to swim. You will make a furious effort to stay afloat—and you will fail.”

That is an accurate one-word summation of my first five months in BJJ: failure. Relentless, unmitigated failure. Soul- and ego-crushing failure.

Consider this dispatch from my BJJ journal:

2/10 – Open Mat

Performed poorly. Got smashed. Decent defense but too passive. Need to be more aggressive. Neck got crushed while in turtle. Honestly I just feel dejected.

There are days when the hardest thing is showing up to class or open mat. The certainty of being smashed, submitted, and in pain makes it all seem like a futile exercise. It’s so tempting to quit in the face of near-certain failure.

But, you have to keep treading. It’s all a bit of a metaphor for life as a whole.

Last week, I received my first stripe on my white belt. I know it’s foolish to place much stock in outward signs of progress, but this promotion—this piece of tape—was one of the more hard-earned accomplishments in my life. And yet, it’s merely the first rung on the ladder. Progress. One aching, small step at a time.

In other news, I’m looking forward to joining some folks from General Atlantic next month for a conversation with students at UVA’s McIntire School of Commerce. Should be fun!

I’ve also created a video of the presentation that I delivered at the UNC Alternative Investments Conference last week (some of the slides are featured below). If you’re keen to see a 30-minute overview of EM PE, check it out on YouTube!

Alla prossima,
Mike

—

Abraaj: Part Deux

In last month’s newsletter we discussed the drama at Abraaj following revelations that four LPs had hired forensic accountants to probe the books of the Abraaj Growth Markets Health Fund.

The situation is serious, indeed:

Abraaj’s fund management business is being split off into a separate entity with an independent board “to which internal audit and compliance will directly report.”
Abraaj’s founder, Arif Naqvi, relinquished management of the funds business, though he is expected to serve on its investment committee.
The firm announced a halt to investment activities.
Private Equity News reports that Themis, the energy team that Abraaj acquired in March 2016, sought to end its partnership with the firm as early as mid-2017. Denham Capital announced a new platform agreement with Themis earlier this month.
The WSJ reports that the firm is weighing job cuts as its fundraising is put on hold; existing investors in its $6B target mega fund are asking for their money back; investors in other funds are considering selling their stakes; and, lenders are reviewing credit lines for their capital call facilities.
The FT reports that the firm’s CFO departed.

Meanwhile, the firm is still unable to secure an exit from K-Electric, a divestiture it announced in October 2016. Abraaj was slated to receive a consideration of $1.77B from Shanghai Electric Power, a subsidiary of the State Power Investment Corporation of China; however, the transaction has been dogged by delays.

According to a local news report dated 9 March, the Pakistani government still had not cleared the sale, in part because it has not received a copy of the sale-purchase agreement, in part on national security grounds, and in part because the company is alleged to owe “dues” upwards of PKR139 billion (~$1.25B). Arif Naqvi is reported to have met with government ministers this week in an attempt to accelerate the sale.

What a mess. I’m left wondering if investors in the firm’s funds will seek (a) new GP(s) to manage out the assets.

—

EM Fundraising: Coming Full Circle?

“Coming Full Circle.” So reads the adulatory headline from EMPEA’s year-end 2017 statistics, which show $61 billion in EM fundraising across PE, private credit, and infrastructure and real assets—the highest level since 2008. Break out the champagne glasses and lace up those dancing shoes. EM PE is back!

Or not.

Looking at fundraising for buyout and growth equity funds, the volumes remain stagnant since 2011 (see below). Though 2017 shows a rebound, the aggregate figure is deceptive: KKR Asia III clocked in at $9.3B and Affinity Asia closed on $6B, which means these two funds account for 40% of the capital raised for buyout and growth strategies. That leaves about $20B for the rest of EM. It’s peanuts!

The trends we highlighted in November 2016 are continuing apace, with only 75 growth equity funds achieving a close in 2017—a 44% decline since 2010. In addition, new entrants are struggling to get traction. EMPEA’s own analyses show that first-time growth equity funds have declined from 30% of the capital raised for the strategy in 2008-09 to less than 10% over the last four years.

At issue is a lack of distributions and a lost decade for LPs in EM buyout and growth equity funds (see below). There is a sharp drop-off in distributions beginning in 2007 / 08 when fundraising exploded. It’s a decade later, and the breakpoint for top-quartile funds beginning in 2008 hasn’t returned investors’ capital.

These performance indicators from Cambridge Associates are damning, and it’s no surprise why LPs have been walking away from “traditional” EM PE in greater numbers.

But there’s something about this exhibit that bothers me. I know many established managers that refuse to provide their performance figures to Cambridge. One global manager was befuddled when I presented these figures; s/he noted that their EM deals generated IRRs well north of 30%.

It’s worth asking whether Cambridge’s benchmarks are a worthy benchmark in EM. I have my doubts.

For example, a quick sketch comparing the universe of EM buyout and growth equity funds—as collected by EMPEA—to those in Cambridge Associates’ database show that CA has between 4% and 21% of the total number of funds by count, and between 29% and 60% by total capitalization (excluding 2011; see below).

The industry is poorly served by these benchmarks. I should probably stop using them, but there is no credible alternative.

If only there were an organization that could serve as a utility for the industry—one that provided impartial data on private capital performance … 🤔

In any event, as bearish as I’ve been about the prospects for the EM PE industry, I am cautiously optimistic that we’re close to reaching a bottom. If flows to EM public equities continue, then the exit windows should stay open, managers should distribute cash to their LPs, and then capital can be recycled to new commitments.

While I don’t expect EM-dedicated growth equity and buyout funds to come “full circle” to the $58 billion they raised in 2007 anytime soon, the scarcity of capital allocated to the sub-$1 billion segment portends well for the performance of current vintages. And if history is any guide, LPs will herd back into these markets after the “easy” money has been made.

—

Private Equity: Overvalued and Overrated?

Dan Rasmussen of Verdad is not making friends with many people in private equity. His former colleagues at Bain Capital must wish he’d stop talking. Like him or hate him, Dan puts out thought-provoking, empirically driven takes on the myths and realities of U.S. buyouts (see last December’s newsletter for an example).

In his latest piece, “Private Equity Overvalued and Overrated?”, Dan probes three premises about which there is “near-complete consensus:”

PE firms make money by creating value in portfolio companies;
PE is less volatile / risky than public equity; and,
PE will significantly outperform other investments.

Rasmussen’s most interesting conclusion pertains to the first bullet: the myth of value creation. Verdad constructed a database of 390 deals—representing more than $700 billion in enterprise value—for which the PE firm issued debt to finance the acquisition. This enabled Verdad to compare underlying companies’ financial performance both pre- and post-acquisition. What did they find?

In 54 percent of the transactions we examined, revenue growth slowed. In 45 percent, margins contracted. And in 55 percent, capex spending as a percentage of sales declined. Most private equity firms are cutting long-term investments, not increasing them, resulting in slower growth, not faster growth.

If PE firms are not growing businesses faster, investing more in growth, or gaining much operational efficiency, just what are they doing?

In 70 percent of cases, PE firms are leveraging up the businesses they buy. PE firms typically double the amount of debt on the balance sheet, from 2.5x EBITDA to 5x EBITDA—the biggest financial change apparent from our study.

With $1.7 trillion in dry powder, rising rates, and average U.S. LBO entry multiples hitting 11.2x EBITDA, this just does not seem like an attractive value proposition.

—

Persistence in Private Equity

McKinsey’s Global Private Markets Review has a fascinating finding on the decline of persistence in private equity performance. Notably, “follow-on performance is converging towards the 25 percent mark—that is, random distribution.”

At a time when capital is flooding to mega-cap funds and, at least in emerging markets, established GPs with a track record, I wonder whether new techniques are needed for manager selection. Perhaps the winning LPs will be those with the liberty to chase a variant perception of value; those less hamstrung by rigid asset allocation buckets and / or institutional constraints.

Je ne sais pas.

—

From the Bookshelf

A man is born gentle and weak.
At his death he is hard and stiff.
Green plants are tender and filled with sap.
At their death they are withered and dry.

Therefore the stiff and unbending is the disciple of death.
The gentle and yielding is the disciple of life.

Thus an army without flexibility never wins a battle.
A tree that is unbending is easily broken.

The hard and strong will fall.
The soft and weak will overcome.

— Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching (Vintage: 1989).

# # #

Haven’t signed up for our newsletter yet? Sign up now.

# # #

Bulls on Parade

January 18, 2018July 30, 2018 by Mike 1 Comment

The animal spirits are palpable. Though U.S. markets have seemed to be fully valued for some time, the price action since the ball dropped on 2018 is saying, “these go to 11.”

Jeremy Grantham of GMO captures the sentiment in his piece, “Bracing Yourself for a Possible Near-Term Melt-Up.” The punchline: Grantham says it’s possible that we’ll see a melt-up to 3,400–3,700 (!) on the S&P 500 over the next nine to 18 months. I mean, it’s possible (probable?) that we won’t, but I think he’s more right than wrong.

If you missed it, Grantham laid down a gauntlet of a thought exercise late last year: imagine that you are Stalin’s pension fund manager and you are told to generate 4.5% real returns for 10 years, or else. Where do you allocate your capital?

Grantham’s answer: EM equity. In size.

I imagine that many investors—particularly those with 7%+ return assumptions—are asking themselves the question: am I sufficiently overweight in EM?

Unfortunately, I don’t think that extends to EM private markets. However, a bull cycle in EM public markets should boost multiples and be conducive for exits. Here’s hoping that we see sustained portfolio and direct investment flows, and GPs seizing the opportunity to distribute capital back to their LPs.

Separately, thanks to those of you who encouraged people to subscribe to our newsletter. Our plea resulted in a donation to Room to Read, so thanks for contributing to children’s literacy.

Finally, If you missed our most recent research piece over the holidays, Does the EM PE Asset Class Scale?, it’s available for free on our website.

Happy new year. Let’s make it a good one.

Alla prossima,
Mike

—

McVey Calls a Secular Bull Market in EM

KKR’s Henry McVey issued his hefty investment outlook for 2018, “You Can Get What You Need.” The takeaway for readers of this newsletter is his conclusion that EM are in a secular bull market that should last for three to five years. Inshallah.

Of note, McVey ran a DuPont analysis and discovers “that operating margins are finally improving across all of EM after a five-year bear market, which is now boosting return on equity.” Commodity-related companies are a major driver of this swing, so it pays to keep an eye on commodity prices for a potential turn.

One interesting tidbit in the outlook is his forecast for private equity returns over the next five years, which he estimates will decline to 9.6% (the highest across asset classes; see below).

—

Norway

No, not that story.

Norway’s $1.1 trillion sovereign wealth fund has submitted a recommendation to the finance ministry that it be given greater latitude to invest in and alongside private equity funds. This would be a fairly significant development for the private equity industry, given the volume of capital that it could unlock for the asset class.

In my dreams, I envision them building a team with a global mandate to identify small- and mid-cap managers with compelling strategies. Exploiting the advantage of being a genuinely long-term investor, and seizing the opportunity to build an edge in private markets.

But in my waking hours, I see billions flowing directly to Blackstone.

—

Brazil on the Move

Brazil’s auto industry is moving product: vehicle exports are expected to hit an all-time high of 750,000 in 2017, according to reports in the FT. We highlighted the bottoming process in Brazil in our April 2017 newsletter, when we juxtaposed the contraction in consumer lending and declining retail sales in the country with the fiesta in Mexico. If one were fishing for a macro long-short idea, this might be one place to look for pairs.

More to the point, we expect some large Brazilian funds to come to market in 2018. Will investors commit, or take a pass?

—

Not Interested

“Emerging market interest remained low this year.”

So concludes Probitas Partners, the global placement advisory firm, in its Private Equity Institutional Investor Trends for 2018 survey (n=98). Emerging markets are one of the least attractive segments within global private equity, with only 9% of respondents planning to focus their attention on EM this year (see below).

Managers in EM just are not a priority.

Within EM, surveyed LPs find China, India, and Southeast Asia most attractive, while ~15% of respondents express interest in LatAm and Brazil. Notably, 38% of respondents report that they do not invest in EM.

The full survey is available at this link (registration required).

—

From the Bookshelf

There are Croakers in every Country always boding its Ruin.

— Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography (Oxford World’s Classics: 1993).

# # #

Haven’t signed up for our newsletter yet? Sign up now.

# # #

Does EM PE Scale?

December 14, 2017July 30, 2018 by Mike 1 Comment

Does the emerging markets private equity asset class scale?

No. I don’t believe it does.

In fact, I think the absorptive capacity of EM PE / VC is as low as $16 billion in new flows per year, compared to the $40 billion in fundraising we’ve seen on average since 2011. At least, that’s my finding in Portico’s most recent research piece: Does the Emerging Markets Private Equity Asset Class Scale?

The inspiration for this think piece comes from Fred Wilson, co-founder of Union Square Ventures, who wrote a fascinating blog post in 2009 on “The Venture Capital Math Problem.” If you haven’t read it, you should. In it, Fred concluded that the volume of exits in U.S. venture right-sized the industry between $15 billion and $17 billion in flows per year, remarkably similar to the conclusion I reached.

While this piece isn’t likely to win me many friends, I hope that it provides some food for thought, and that it sparks some lively conversations. I’d love to hear your feedback!

A humble request. We’re trying to grow our (monthly-ish) newsletter’s audience in 2018. If you enjoy this newsletter and / or know someone who would, then please feel free to share it with them. It’s free to sign up for future issues at www.tinyurl.com/porticonewsletter, while previous editions are available here.

For each new (human) subscriber we get between now and 30 December, we’ll make a donation to Room to Read, a nonprofit active in Africa and Asia that focuses on literacy and gender equality in education.

Happy holidays to you and yours, and best wishes for health and happiness in 2018.

Alla prossima,
Mike

—

Mea Culpa

A mea culpa is in order. In last month’s newsletter, I (somewhat cheekily) called out IFC for committing $25M to Carlyle’s $5B Asia Partners V; it was actually to their ($1B target) Asia *Growth* Partners V. Sloppy mistake. I apologize. Thank you to the discerning reader who noticed my error and called me out on it.

That said, I still don’t understand why IFC is funding a fifth-series Carlyle fund. According to IFC’s disclosure of the commitment, as of 31 December 2016, Carlyle held approximately $158B in AUM. This figure is ~70% greater than IFC’s total assets, ~4x the value of IFC’s total investments, and nearly 12x the value of IFC’s equity investments (as of 30 June 2017; see IFC’s consolidated balance sheets at this link).

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

—

KKR Quits Africa

We’ve dedicated a decent number of pixels in our newsletters to the issue of large-cap deal flow in Africa. Late last month, KKR decided to disband its Africa team for good. Several of the team’s dealmakers left earlier this year, in part, it seems, because they were investing out of KKR’s European fund and were losing out to French, German, etc. deals in IC meetings.

But a KKR spokesman breaks it down pretty plainly: “To invest our funds we need deal-flow of a certain size. It was especially the deal-size that wasn’t coming through.”

Invariably, KKR’s spokesman continues, “There was enough deal-flow at a smaller level.”

—

The Power of Compounding

Albright Capital recently released an enjoyable piece on “The Power of Compounding” in an EM portfolio. The firm compares the returns that three hypothetical long-only investors would have received from the MSCI EM, based on their (in)ability to time the market.

It’s an original thought experiment with results that might surprise you.

—

Will Robots Disrupt Private Equity?

McKinsey Global Institute released its analysis of the impact of automation on jobs. They estimate that “up to 375 million people may need to switch occupational categories” by 2030, with up to one-third of the U.S. and German workforces—and half of Japan’s—needing to learn new skills and pursue new occupations.

Will “private equity investor” be one of these disrupted occupations? Could robots do a better job at allocating capital? Given the recent performance figures, at least in EM, one could be forgiven for thinking so.

There’s an alluring argument that private markets are less ripe for disruption than public markets: not only is there less data available, but also the manager can apply sophisticated judgment and hard-earned pattern recognition skills to source proprietary deals, construct a quality portfolio, and create value.

I’m not entirely convinced. Consider an analysis from Dan Rasmussen of Verdad, who, whilst at Bain Capital, examined 2,500 deals representing $350 billion of invested capital:

About one-third of the deals analyzed accounted for more than 100% of profits (no surprise there) and the majority of the deals in the sample fell well short of the forecasts built into the financial models. The biggest predictor of whether a company would be a big winner or not was the purchase price paid. The dividing line seemed to be 7x earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). When PE firms paid more than 7x EBITDA, their chance of success plummeted — regardless of how much managerial magic they threw at it. The 25% of the cheapest deals accounted for 60% of the profits. The most expensive 50% of deals accounted for only about 10% of profits.

In other words, all the fancy analysis and financial models performed worse than the simple rule “buy all deals at less than 7x EBITDA” [emphasis added]. A simple quantitative rule worked better than expert judgment.

I was recently speaking with Abby Phenix—formerly of Advent International, now assisting PE firms with customer due diligence—and we ended up riffing on this topic for a bit. In the past, she raised some thought-provoking points about the automation prospects for manager selection (think funds of funds) and investment analysis (think associates), which could enhance productivity and reduce costs (think management fees).

What is it that investors want? Cost-effective exposure to the investable asset or the privilege of paying fees to the middleman?

—

Is it Possible to Short Graduate Schools?

This statistic surprised me: the stock of U.S. student loan debt ($1.3 trillion) is now equal to the size of the U.S. junk bond market. Astonishing.

Estimates from The New America Foundation suggest that upwards of 40% of this is tied to graduate school debt. If I could short the graduate education market directly, I would.

Consider that in 2012, 25% of graduate students were burdened with at least $100,000 of student loan debt. Meanwhile, in 2016, the median incomes for master’s degree holders in the United States were roughly $80,000 for males and $58,000 for females. The math doesn’t work, prospective students know it, and there’s a broad-based slowdown in applications (see below).

Effectively, the market for graduate education experienced a debt-financed positive demand shock, universities expanded supply, and now there is a negative demand shock. Schools will need to cut tuition and take a hard look at which costs can be cut.

If you’re keen to learn more about just how much of a mess this is, I wrote a piece about this on my personal blog (source of the exhibit above).

Lots of data. Lots of charts. Oodles of other content.

—

From the Bookshelf

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
(Ecclesiastes 9:11)

For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
(Matthew 16: 26)

— The Bible: Authorized King James Version (Oxford World’s Classics: 2008).

# # #

Haven’t signed up for our newsletter yet? Sign up now.

# # #

Dumb Money

November 19, 2017July 30, 2018 by Mike

In last month’s newsletter, I mentioned that I would be speaking at a conference with a bunch of LPs on the topic of “Global Markets for Buyouts and VC”. I closed saying, “Here’s hoping for an interactive, no-holds-barred session.”

Suffice it to say that my hopes materialized. While discussing the performance of EM PE, one LP said:

The issue with emerging markets is these funds have often been growth equity with minority stakes. The teams have been heavy on investment bankers who don’t know how to do deals. In emerging markets, private equity is the dumb money.

Dang.

Another discussion revolved around whether EM PE is in a cyclical downturn or a structural one. LPs’ commitments are generally pro-cyclical and many herd into markets / strategies at the same time, with predictable results. If so, then—ceteris paribus—the trickle of capital flowing to EMs (apart from mega-cap Asia … more on that below) may well signal a cyclical bottoming. As one conference delegate argued, now would present an optimal time to adopt a contrarian strategy and lean into EM PE.

Two brief rejoinders: First, this is not what LPs are saying they’ll do:

Second, this just isn’t how private markets work. Even if you wanted to do so, you can’t buy the index. You have to choose a manager.

Industry cycles and macro need to be disentangled. With that in mind, my view is that the quality of the managers in the market at a given time drives flows more than macro. The nuance is that fundraising is a bit of a coincident indicator: the managers with whom LPs wish to invest frequently come to market (a) at the same time; and, (b) when investor sentiment toward the jurisdiction in question is hot.

Alas, I’m still in the camp of this being a structural downturn. A few reasons I’ve pondered this week include:

“Dumb Money”!
David Swensen’s recent remark that “the breadth of emerging markets that we were interested in 20 years ago has narrowed dramatically.”
DFIs, which historically have supported the development of the industry, are increasingly committing to later, larger funds.
The ongoing emergence of local, non-PE investors that don’t face the same return hurdles / horizons creates greater competition for quality deals.
Tech is disrupting everything; in markets with fewer, ephemeral exit channels, this is a big problem.

More importantly, Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. One of the great bits of having a toddler is that I’m reminded daily that I have a blessed life. Thank you for being a part of it, and for welcoming this newsletter into your busy day!

Alla prossima,
Mike

—

The Great Wall of Capital

Fundraising for buyouts in Asia is robusto:

Baring Asia is reportedly going to market for a $6B fund
Blackstone is reportedly marketing its first pan-Asia fund at $3B
The Carlyle Group is wrapping up Asia V targeting $5B
KKR closed on its Asian Fund III at $9.3B
MBK Partners closed Fund IV at $4.1B
TPG is targeting $4.5B for Asia VII
Warburg Pincus closed its China fund with $2B

Seven funds. $34 billion. There are others.

That is a lot of granola; it’s on par with the aggregate hauls for EM PE funds in each of the last two years.

In other news, KKR inked a deal this month with Great Wall International to bring leveraged loans to China. There’s a joke in here about Barbarians at the Gate, but I’ll stop.

—

LP Views on Latin America

LAVCA teamed up with Cambridge Associates for the second time on their annual LP opinion survey. There are some interesting findings the study, such as the discovery that 53% of LPs considering a first investment in Latin America view currency volatility as the biggest impediment to investing in the region. (Recency bias?)

My favorite exhibit explores LPs’ preferred means of accessing LatAm:

Most LPs plan to access LatAm via pan-regional funds
Brazil is the country of the future …
Proportionally, more Latin American LPs expect to access LatAm PE via global funds than international LPs (statistically insignificant, but the fact that they’re close strikes me as interesting)

—

Facebank

The societal parasite that is Facebook is entering the small business lending space, starting with merchant cash advances. This is a fairly fascinating development. The company has already effectively become the Internet for a large number of people; will it become a lender of first resort for small businesses? Given the vast swathes of data that Facebook collects, one might surmise that they could develop an edge in credit scoring that could benefit businesses with lower rates and Facebook with a large loan book. My interest is piqued.

In related news, EMPEA’s Q3 data show that capital invested in fintech companies through September ($416M) has already exceeded last year’s total ($379M). Aggregate fintech deal value is on track to match or exceed those for 2014 ($470M) and 2015 ($509M).

—

Turkey Resurgent?

Every so often, a leader steps up and makes a bold pronouncement, and market sentiment shifts. Think of Warren Buffet going long Goldman in the depths of the crisis, or Jamie Dimon plunking $26 million of his own cash on JPM shares in February 2016 (now up ~70%).

Has Seymur Tari of Turkven made a gambit to shift opinion in Turkey? Following a summer IPO of jeans retailer Mavi, Tari appears to be getting bulled-up on the market. Last month, Tari announced that the firm plans to list Medical Park Group in an offering that could fetch $1B. (Maybe?) Moreover, Turkven is planning to execute “three to four acquisitions of $50-400 million each in 2018 … and to start a new fund of more than $1 billion in one or two years,” according to Reuters.

I admire the verve. Turkey has been in the doldrums, and local business and consumer sentiment has been in a downtrend for seven years (see below). Is the tide turning?

Turkey2

—

From the Bookshelf

The quality of ideas seems to play a minor role in mass movement leadership. What counts is the arrogant gesture, the complete disregard of the opinion of others, the singlehanded defiance of the world.

Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership. There can be no mass movement without some deliberate misrepresentation of facts.

— Eric Hoffer, The True Believer (Perennial: 1966).

# # #

Haven’t signed up for our newsletter yet? Sign up now.

# # #

The Mid-Market Squeeze

November 19, 2017July 30, 2018 by Mike

In recent months, I’ve enjoyed some great conversations with individuals who have welcomed a frank discussion of the EM PE industry’s challenges. One recurring topic of conversation is the imbalance between supply and demand for capital for PE funds operating in the lower- and mid-market segments in EMs.

The hollowing out of mid-market funds animated my decision to found Portico, and it served as the impetus for our EM Mid-Market Survey, which we conducted in May. I am pleased to announce the release of Portico’s second research piece, The Mid-Market Squeeze, which shares findings from our survey.

We undertook this project with two objectives in mind: (i) to test our hypotheses for the supply-demand imbalance; and (ii), to illuminate potential paths toward solutions.

Most of our hypotheses were affirmed, in whole or in part, but the report’s overarching finding is that the declining number of EM mid-market funds is more than just a funding gap, it is a symptom of industry-wide problems. Our survey reveals four drivers for the mid-market squeeze:

Macroeconomic developments in EMs are not the reason why LPs aren’t committing to mid-market PE funds; it’s the failure of EM PE funds to deliver returns.
There is an acute funding gap for EM PE funds smaller than $100 million in size.
Development finance institutions are walking away from smaller EM PE funds, and investing with larger, more established firms. Moreover, their preferred ticket sizes are in the sweet spot of where commercial LPs prefer to play.
Institutional investors lament the lack of transparency in the EM PE industry.

The report offers a few thoughts on potential solutions to the mid-market squeeze, and prognostications on the road ahead. I invite you to click the button below to download a copy of the report. Please feel free to share it with colleagues, and of course, all feedback is welcome.

Finally, thanks go out to the 76 industry professionals who participated in this survey, as well as the winner of our prize drawing—a representative from an Asia-Pacific sovereign wealth fund—who selected the donation to UNICEF.

Alla prossima,
Mike

—

Indonesia: So Hot Right Now

Having freshly returned from a trip through Southeast Asia, I was interested to see KKR’s Henry McVey release a new report on Indonesia, stating:

Indonesia has one of the most compelling stories that we see … and unlike in past trips, we are now confident stating that we think Indonesia is harnessing its potential into near-term economic and investment realities.

The macro is certainly compelling, and there are reasons to be optimistic (not least the forthcoming rail line connecting the airport with downtown).

I agree with McVey that “public market indices are often not the appropriate investment vehicles to actually gain access to compelling GDP-per-capita stories;” and based on my own meetings in the country, I share McVey’s conviction that there are attractive tech opportunities in private markets (see charts below). KKR is actively pursuing this thesis, having invested alongside Capital Group Private Markets, Farallon Capital Management, and Warburg Pincus in the local ride-hailing / transportation company GO-JEK last year.

Still, translating the macro into compelling investment returns requires deft navigation. One dynamic working in mid-market managers’ favor is the general scarcity of capital; there is less competition for deals from other financial sponsors in this segment, though local families and investors play an important role in the private markets ecosystem. The game changes once tickets climb north of $100m, where a large volume of PE capital is searching for deals.

—

Coffee Talk

In our April newsletter we highlighted the rise of secondary buyouts as an exit channel in Africa, and there’s big news from ECP portfolio company Nairobi Java House. Abraaj won the auction for the company, which reportedly drew 12 non-binding bids (including from Carlyle and TPG). Abraaj shall take full control of the company, which includes two additional franchises: Frozen Yoghurt and 360 Degrees Artisan Pizza. By my count this is Abraaj’s third secondary buyout in Sub-Saharan Africa out of four deals since 2014 (Mouka from Actis in 2015, Libstar from Metier in 2014).

While Abraaj has some experience in the QSR segment (Kudu in Saudi Arabia), and I’m curious about potential synergies with its investments in Brookside Dairy, Fan Milk, and Libstar, the firm has its work cut out for it. I struggle to think of an East African firm that has been able to achieve pan-African scale.

One experienced advisor in the region tells us:

The pan-African strategy is very difficult to execute due to: (a) the small size of most of Africa’s 40+ markets, which means you’re spreading the fixed costs of market entry across a small customer / revenue base; (b) the high cross-border costs of trade, which makes supply chains expensive to run; and (c), the economic, regulatory, and cultural differences between East, West, and Southern Africa. The difficulties cut in every direction.

While Ecobank is a partial exception (it has a long way to go to become a consolidated, sustainable business with deep insight into all of its local markets), the failures are numerous. For example, United Bank of Africa, which has met success in its home market of Nigeria, got burned in Kenya. South African retailers, such as Shoprite and Massmart, have struggled to gain traction north of the Limpopo.

The general lesson I draw is that African markets do not have a broadly even playing field. Any attempt to expand beyond one’s own region will only work if you make a massive investment, and you bring in heavy hitters with political influence. A more sensible strategy is to aim to become the number one player in your region rather than overstretching by seeking a continental presence.

🤔

—

Will Private Equity Build Africa’s Manufacturing Sector?

No.

The FT recently ran a comment piece imploring PE firms to drive the development of Africa’s manufacturing sector. Private equity can deliver—and has delivered—powerful developmental impacts in Africa. For example, an impact assessment of CDC Group plc’s Africa fund investments between 2004-12 shows direct job creation of 40,500 positions and a $600 million increase in taxes paid. I’m a believer in the potential of the asset class to deliver dignity in EMs; however, some of the author’s overzealous assertions bear some scrutiny:

Private equity has largely ignored investment in African manufacturing and industrial projects. [EMPEA] data show that 23 PE firms have made only 53 investments in the industrials sector in Sub-Saharan Africa since 2008.

PE firms have not ignored African manufacturing companies. First, by excluding deals in manufacturing companies outside of the industrial sector (e.g., consumer durables, food and beverage), the data understate the volume of investments that have been made in manufacturers.

Second, how many manufacturing companies are there in Africa? Within the industrials sector, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon there are only 57 private African companies generating between $50m and $500m in revenue.

Middle market funds, in particular, have an enormous opportunity to unlock potential in this sector. Doing so will … create value for investors by creating a robust deal pipeline with attractive exit opportunities …

Maybe? There have been—and will be—some excellent returns from manufacturing deals in Africa; but has the traditional EM PE model created value for investors?

According to Cambridge Associates’ African Private Equity & Venture Capital Index, the 10-year horizon pooled return is 4.51%, and the pooled return has not exceeded 5% over any multi-year period. This may be a function of the constituents in Cambridge’s database—Ethos, for example discloses a USD gross IRR of 20% since its third fund—but the pooled return suggests investors are taking on equity risk + country risk + illiquidity, and receiving 200 basis points over 10-year Treasurys.

With this return profile, why should pensioners, endowments, and foundations be subsidizing African industrial policy?

On a related note, McKinsey Global Institute released a fascinating report on Chinese investment in Africa that shows who is likely to drive the growth of manufacturing on the continent: Chinese firms. McKinsey estimates that there are more than 10,000 Chinese firms operating in Africa—3.7x more than previously estimated—and nearly one-third of them are in the manufacturing sector (generating ~$60 billion in local revenue, with 12% market share). Says McKinsey:

In sectors such as manufacturing, there are too few African firms with the capital, technology, and skills to invest successfully and too few Western firms with the risk appetite to do so in Africa. Thus the opportunities are reaped by Chinese entrepreneurs who have the skills, capital, and willingness to live in and put their money in unpredictable developing-country settings.

—

In the Beach Bag

I don’t know if these are the books I’ll end up reading, but here’s what I’m planning to pack for the beach this year:

Business Adventures, by John Brooks
The “best business book” say Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond
Most Americans are one accident away from financial ruin: 25% can’t pay their monthly bills in full, and 44% can’t meet a $400 emergency expense. Desmond’s book looks at the precarious state of Americans’ living situations. In Milwaukee, for example, “a city of fewer than 105,000 renter households, landlords evict roughly 16,000 adults and children each year.”
The Devils of Loudun, by Aldous Huxley
I quite enjoyed Huxley’s Grey Eminence, which chronicled the life of Father Joseph—advisor to Cardinal Richelieu and advocate of policies that led to the Thirty Years’ War—so I thought I’d return to the trough for his take on mass hysteria and witch hunts in 17th-Century France.
The Demon in Democracy: Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies, by Ryszard Legutko
A Polish freedom fighter contemplates the similarities between liberal democracy and communism.
Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages, by Carlota Perez
A recommendation from Marc Andreessen.
The Thirty Years War, by C.V. Wedgwood
With talk of the Westphalian system’s decline, why not read Dame Wedgwood’s classic for a refresher on the madness that led to the peace?
Musashi, by Eiji Yoshikawa
A novel chronicling the life of the infamous samurai, and teacher of bushido, Miyamoto Musashi.

—

From the Bookshelf

I have given up newspapers in exchange for Tacitus and Thucydides, for Newton and Euclid; and I find myself much the happier.

— Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, 21 January 1812 (Monticello, Virginia).

# # #

Haven’t signed up for our newsletter yet? Sign up now.

# # #

More Dickensian by the Day

November 19, 2017July 30, 2018 by Mike

Greetings from Jakarta, home to 30 million people (metro) and half as many cars, judging by traffic. I’m nearly halfway through a circuit of Southeast Asia, where I’ve been meeting with some great managers and discussing the evolution of the region’s private markets landscape.

Over the last five years, LPs have consistently ranked Southeast Asia as one of the top two most-attractive markets for GP investment. Yet this year’s Global LP Survey from EMPEA highlights the perennial disconnect:

41% of respondents plan to begin or expand their commitments to Southeast Asia over the next two years;
However, 32% say a limited number of established fund managers deters them from investing in the region (the highest percentage of any EM region); and,
25% say the scale of the opportunity to invest is too small (also the highest percentage across all EMs).

We share a few our of key takeaways from EMPEA’s survey below, but the fundraising environment is becoming more Dickensian by the day.

In any event, I’m off for a weekend in Siem Reap to admire what Norman Lewis described as “probably the most spectacular man-made remains in the world.” Then, I’ll be heading to Ho Chi Minh City for AVCJ’s conference. Let me know if you’re in town.

If you’re interested in having Portico produce a report on the private markets landscape in Southeast Asia, then please drop me a line.

Best wishes,
Mike

⎯

A Grim LP Survey

Some depressing reading is on offer in EMPEA’s 2017 Global LP Survey. There are a number of interesting nuggets throughout the report, but I came away with three big takeaways:

Talk to the hand — The pie of capital earmarked for EM PE is shrinking. To wit, 25% of LPs plan to decrease the proportion of their PE allocation targeted to EMs over the next two years; this figure jumps to 36% for LPs that have been active in EM PE for more than 15 years.
Show me the money — The percentage of LPs expecting at least 16% net from their EM PE portfolios has continuously declined over the last five years: from 61% in 2013 to 43% in 2017. It’s also the first year that this figure dipped below 50%.Though only 17% of respondents expect ≥ 16% net from their developed markets portfolios, I suspect the drivers of these expectations are different: in EMs, it’s a lack of distributions coupled with FX, while in DMs, a surfeit of capital and leverage is fueling frothy entry valuations.
Chasing the rabbit — It’s hard not to think LPs are exhibiting some procyclical behavior: India rings in as the most attractive market while Brazil languishes at sixth; health care and consumer goods / services rank as the most attractive sectors.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

⎯

A Platinum Lining?

I always make time to read what KKR’s Henry McVey has to say about the markets, and his latest report, The Ultra High Net Worth Investor: Coming of Age, is no exception.

Whereas family offices constituted 6% of the respondent base of EMPEA’s LP Survey (call it 7 or 8 respondents?), KKR surveyed over 50 Ultra High Net Worth clients (defined as investors with ≥ $30m in investable assets and including family offices). The findings should provide a modicum of encouragement to private markets fund managers, as UHNW investors have a tendency to adopt a genuinely long-term perspective, and embrace alternative assets (see charts below).

Money shot: The stock of global HNW assets stands at $60 trillion with a 5-year CAGR of 7.4%, compared to global pension assets of $36.4 trillion and a 5-year CAGR of 5.8%.

⎯

Ahlan, Bimbo!

The Mexican behemoth Grupo Bimbo has acquired Moroccan baked goods company Groupe Adghal as its toehold in Africa. Three thoughts:

Morocco continues to serve as a popular entrepôt for PEs and corporates to access Sub-Saharan African markets.
Bimbo’s ambitions are truly global. They’ve swallowed up Thomas’ English Muffins, Entenmann’s, Arnold Bread, Sara Lee, and Boboli Pizza north of the border (wall?), and they’re planning to ramp up a growth through acquisition strategy in China.
Personally, my heart warms at the prospect of children around the world sinking their teeth into a sleeve of ¡Sponch! cakes.

Speaking of Hispanophone companies pursuing acquisitions in Africa, there was a super interesting announcement from Helios Investment Partners and the Spanish multinational GBfoods earlier this month. The firms are pursuing a joint venture to create a leading pan-African FMCG franchise. I think we’ll continue to see PE firms teaming with multinationals to de-risk acquisitions and validate their entry into new markets; it’s a compelling proposition.

Out of curiosity, I investigated the number of Hispanophone acquisitions in Africa (excluding our friends at Mediterrania Capital Partners). Across 30 deals since 2008, six have been in metals and mining, and four in F&B. Small volumes, but the trend is up and to the right (see chart below).

⎯

The Saga Continues

Baring Private Equity Asia and CPPIB announced that they are taking Nord Anglia private for $4.3B. Baring originally took the company private in 2008, led the firm through a $350m IPO in 2014, and a $170m follow-on issuance in 2015. Over the last four years, Nord Anglia executed at least seven acquisitions, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon. The company’s revenues grew from $323.7m in 2013 to $856m in 2016, with net income swinging from a loss of $23.3m to earnings of $47.1 over the period (and posting a 17% ROE in 2016).

⎯

Fashionably Late?

Blackstone has decided to join the private debt party in India. Apollo (through a JV with ICICI Ventures), Baring Private Equity Asia, Clearwater Capital, KKR, and Piramal—among others—have been in the mix for some time. It’s a huge market, but one wonders if the bar’s running out of elbow room.

⎯

From the Bookshelf

A seed that sprouts at the foot of its parent tree remains stunted until it is transplanted … Every human being, when the time comes, has to depart and seek his fulfillment in his own way.

— R.K. Narayan (trans.), The Ramayana (Penguin: 1987).

# # #

Haven’t signed up for our newsletter yet? Sign up now.

# # #