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5 PE-backed fintech deals; insights from KKR’s investor day

Good morning dealmakers, thank goodness it’s Friday.

It’s Obey Martin Manayiti here with the newsletter.

The first half of April has delivered a slew of tech deals, especially companies aimed at institutional investors, banks and other businesses that use financial software. I’ve rounded up a handful of fintech deals in this week’s listicle.

This month, PE Hub and Buyouts announced our annual Deal of the Year winners. Today, I’m highlighting the secondaries winner.

I will also revisit some highlights from KKR’s investor day, which was held earlier in the week.

Let’s start with some deal news.

Deal of the day

Big 7 Ventures has acquired Bowtex LP, a Texas-based manufacturer of survey stakes and other specialty grading products.

Bowtex LP provides essential survey products for construction, surveying, and land development projects.

Upgrade to the premium version of the Wire for more on this deal.

Fintech

April kicked off with a lot of tech deals. One of the areas that has been front and center for those deals is financial technology. These deals target the institutional investment community, banks and other businesses that use financial software. PE Hub highlighted five deals that were announced since the beginning of the month.

Premium subscribers have access to all the fintech deals referenced above.

Note: We will soon publish a story on Parthenon Capital’s exit from Institutional Cash Distributors, one of the fintech deals that we included in the roundup.

Deal of the Year: Secondaries

In the depths of the bank crisis last year, with markets cratering and deal pricing wildly fluctuating, one of the largest-ever secondaries sales found its way to final close, blazing like a beacon for the rest of the market that buyers remained ready to proceed, writes Chris Witkowsky.

Kaiser Permanente, a healthcare provider and non-profit healthcare plan, closed its around $5 billion private equity portfolio sale in June, pushing through the market chaos flamed by the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse.

Premium subscribers to the Wire can get more on this deal.

Click here is the full list of the winners.

KKR’s investor day

KKR hosted an investor day earlier this week where Pete Stavros and Nate Taylor, the global co-heads of private equity, touched on the firm’s PE business.

They spoke about their processes for picking investments, their recipe for scaling those businesses, and the new strategies that KKR has implemented in recent years. The pair also spoke about their firm’s operational value creation, connectivity across strategies and within the firm, outsized returns, broad-based employee ownership program, among other themes.

Upgrade to the premium version of the Wire for more on KKR’s investor day.

That’s it for today. You can always reach me at [email protected]

MK Flynn will be back with more on Monday.

Regards,

Obey

Read the full wire commentary on PE Hub ...

Also of note (may require subscriptions)

Why are key-person protections so contentious in fund term negotiations? Buyouts' Chris Witkowsky talked to LPs who feel that key-person provisions have become diluted as they are spread across larger groups of partners, rather than one or two main individuals, essentially de-fanging such protections.

Employees’ Retirement System of the State of Hawaii will commit between $800 million to $1 billion in private equity in 2024, over a 20 percent hike from what the pension committed the previous year. (Buyouts)

AXA Investment Managers Prime – a €35 billion unit of European insurer AXA Group that focuses on private markets and hedge funds – has reached a €430 million first close for its debut secondaries infrastructure fund, Infrastructure Investor understands.

Just how tough is it to raise a sophomore fund? OpenLP boldly predicts 'we could see up to 347 first-time managers exit the market' if success rates drop 5-15% from historical averages. (Venture Capital Journal)

Blue Owl has made an unusual debut in the real estate debt space: While most managers opt either to hire star talent to build a new business or acquire an existing platform, the New York-based firm chose to do both. (Private Equity Real Estate)

Five points to note about distressed debt: A larger and more diverse universe of opportunity for distressed debt and opportunistic credit is unfolding. There are a number of reasons why. (Private Debt Investor)

Privately-held ranching company and agribusiness King Ranch has acquired a 50 percent stake in AGR Partners-backed Cobalt Cattle for an undisclosed sum. (Agri Investor)

From proof of concept to lasting record: The secondaries industry is stepping up its reporting of the performance of continuation fund exits as the supply of opportunities continues to outstrip the available capital for these deals. (Secondaries Investor)

A flurry of recent products suggests ELTIF 2.0 is gaining traction with managers and investors alike. (Private Equity International)

A 27 March decision by the bankruptcy court in Delaware may assist distressed debt investors working to maximize estate value and streamline the process of distributing available assets. (Private Debt Investor)

They said it

“Also, keep in mind we’re often buying these [businesses] from professional investors. Some of these businesses have been owned by private equity, not once, not twice but three times before us and then we go off and make 10 times our money. So clearly, KKR is doing something different and it's all about this opportunity and this ability to identify these unloved assets that are not optimized but are fundamentally sound. We are not buying broken businesses.”

— Pete Stavros, KKR’s co-head of private equity