Private Equity Deals with Capital Allocators

When you think of the greatest private equity deals of all time, names like Google, Facebook, Uber, Dell, and Hilton come to mind. After a recent episode of Private Equity Deals, you might also think about 3G’s acquisition of Burger King. But I’d bet you wouldn’t think about an oil and gas play called CrownRock. Lime Rock Capital created CrownRock alongside a management team with $96.5 million of cash and assets in 2007. Seventeen years later, sold the business to Occidental Petroleum for $12.5 billion.   Lime Rock’s original investment made 79x its money, a net IRR of 18%, and $7.5 billion in gains, which ranks in the top ten fully exited private equity deals of all time. It also exited a continuation vehicle that generated 3x its cost over the last six years of the deal’s life.   My guests to discuss the firm and its grand slam CrownRock deal are Lime Rock Managing Directors John Reynolds, Jonathan Farber, and J McLane.   Our conversation covers Lime Rock’s investment approach and the example of CrownRock. We dive into the initial investment thesis around vertical drilling, the three extinction threats to the business, innovation of horizontal drilling, management excellence, exit options along the way, and the ‘forever hold’ mindset that allowed CrownRock to compound extraordinary amounts of capital.   Take Capital Allocators Audience Engagement Survey [https://www.capitalallocators.com/annual-survey/] Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides [https://twitter.com/tseides?lang=en] or LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tedseides/] Subscribe to the mailing list [https://capitalallocators.com/] Access Transcript with Premium Membership [https://capitalallocators.com/signup]

Consolidation in asset management is one of the industry's most important trends. When any industry enters a mature phase, consolidation brings the benefits of economies of scale, product depth, and broader services to meet client demands. We’ve seen a rising tide of merger activity in recent years, effecting both asset managers and allocators alike. My guests on today’s show are leaders of two organizations that announced mergers in October – Simon Krinsky, a Managing Partner at Hall Capital and Tim McCusker, CIO at NEPC. Hall announced a merger with Pathstone, adding its $45 billion in assets to Pathstone’s $100 billion. NEPC announced a sale of a majority stake in its firm to Hightower Holdings, adding NEPC’s $1.8 trillion of assets under advisement to Hightower’s $130 billion of assets under management. Both Hall and NEPC have been longstanding independent organizations that are selling to a partner backed by private equity owners. Simon and Tim walk through their rationale for the transactions, deal process from idea to signing, and opportunities and challenges going forward. The organizations share similarities in their long independent history, broad equity ownership, and investment capability, while also having significant differences in their new partners, incentive structure, and plan to service clients. Together, Simon and Tim offer an inside look at dealmaking in asset management. Take Capital Allocators Audience Engagement Survey [https://www.capitalallocators.com/annual-survey/] Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides [https://twitter.com/tseides?lang=en] or LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tedseides/] Subscribe to the mailing list [https://capitalallocators.com/] Access Transcript with Premium Membership [https://capitalallocators.com/signup]

3G Capital’s buyout of Burger King may be the most successful private equity deal you’ve never heard about. Over the last fourteen years, or the length of a typical private equity fund, 3G turned a $1 billion investment into $28 billion in value. The annual dividends from the investment accruing to 3G today are around 70% of its invested capital. The deal is one of the highest earning buyouts ever. 3G is an organization with a storied history. Founded by Jorge Paolo Lemann, Carlos Alberto Sicupira, and Marcel Herrmann Telles, the group created an owner-operator model of investing. They rose to prominence through building the largest beer company in the world, initially buying local brewer Brahma in 1989, expanding it and merging with a competitor to become AmBev in 1999, merging with Interbrew to become ImBev in 2004, and taking over Anheuser Busch in 2008 to become AB InBev. Twenty years ago, Alex Behring, a young star on their team, moved to the US to form 3G Capital and take the approach abroad. Burger King was the second largest hamburger fast food chain after McDonalds in 2010 when 3G took it private. What it accomplished since then has been extraordinary. My guests to discuss 3G and the deal are Alex Behring and Daniel Schwartz. Co-Managing Partners of 3G Capital. Our conversation covers the history of 3G, Alex's journey to form 3G Capital, and the 3G playbook. We then dive into the deal, covering the sourcing and deal dynamics, improving operations, growing the business, taking the company public unexpectedly, and reloading to buy Tim Horton’s, Popeye’s, and Firehouse Subs. Today’s Burger King is part of Restaurant Brands International (QSR), a public company with a $32 billion market cap and $50 billion enterprise value. This classic deal will widen your aperture on what’s possible with a long-term, compounding holding period and operational excellence. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides [https://twitter.com/tseides?lang=en] or LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tedseides/] Subscribe to the mailing list [https://capitalallocators.com/] Access Transcript with Premium Membership [https://capitalallocators.com/signup]

This Sponsored Insight features Ben Harrison, Founder and Co-President of DealCloud [https://www.dealcloud.com/], our sponsor for Season 3 of Private Equity Deals. Ben discusses how DealCloud’s vertical software supports alternative investment professionals through deal sourcing, relationship and pipeline management, and workflow efficiencies. We are incredibly grateful of DealCloud for sponsoring Private Equity Deals, and we are eager to highlight their value to the alternative investment community. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides [https://twitter.com/tseides?lang=en] or LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tedseides/] Subscribe to the mailing list [https://capitalallocators.com/] Access Transcript with Premium Membership [https://capitalallocators.com/signup]

On episode eight of season three of Private Equity Deals, Chris and Rob Michalik discuss Kinderhook Industries’ investment in Ironclad Environmental Services. Chris and Rob are twin brothers and co-founders of Kinderhook, a twenty-year-old private equity firm that manages $5 billion specializing in middle-market businesses across healthcare services, environmental services, and automotive/light manufacturing. Ironclad Environmental Services is a leading provider of logistics-based solutions focused on the containment of industrial waste. It has 50 branches and a fleet of 29,000 specialized rental assets that store, separate, and transport liquid and solid industrial waste. Our conversation covers Kinderhook’s identification, due diligence, and negotiation of the deal. We discuss a significant early add-on acquisition, progress-to-date, and the future of Ironclad. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides [https://twitter.com/tseides?lang=en] or LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tedseides/] Subscribe to the mailing list [https://capitalallocators.com/] Access Transcript with Premium Membership [https://capitalallocators.com/signup]