In the field of finance, private equity (PE) is capital stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public. Private equity is offered instead to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the companies. In casual usage, "private equity" can refer to these investment firms rather than the companies that they invest in.
KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global investment company that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and, through its strategic partners, hedge funds. As of December 31, 2023, the firm had completed more than 730 private equity investments in portfolio companies with approximately $710 billion of total enterprise value. As of December 31, 2023, assets under management (AUM) and fee paying assets under management (FPAUM) were $553 billion and $446 billion, respectively.
TPG Inc., previously known as Texas Pacific Group and TPG Capital, is an American private equity firm based in Fort Worth, Texas. TPG manages investment funds in growth capital, venture capital, public equity, and debt investments. The firm invests in a range of industries including consumer/retail, media and telecommunications, industrials, technology, travel, leisure, and health care. TPG became a public company in January 2022, trading on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “TPG”.
HM Capital Partners was a private equity firm in the United States that specialized in leveraged buyouts. The firm was previously known as Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst. It was founded in 1989 by Tom Hicks and John Muse as Hicks, Muse & Co. and was changed in 1994 to reflect the roles of Charles Tate and Jack Furst.
Apax Partners LLP is a British private equity firm, headquartered in London, England. The company also operates out of six other offices in New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Munich and Shanghai. As of December 2023, the firm had raised and advised funds of approximately $65 billion (USD). Apax Partners is one of the oldest and largest private equity firms operating on an international basis.
Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd. (TFCP) is a UK-based private equity firm. Financier Guy Hands founded the firm in 2002 through the spin-off of Nomura Principal Finance Group. The firm, which traces its roots to the formation of its predecessor in 1994, has invested over €14 billion since inception.
Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. is an American private equity firm headquartered in Boston. The firm focuses on investing in middle market growth companies across various sectors, including financial technology, services, healthcare, technology, and business solutions.
Silver Lake, legally Silver Lake Technology Management, L.L.C., is an American global private equity firm focused on technology and technology-enabled investments. Silver Lake is headquartered in Silicon Valley and New York, and has offices in London, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
Apollo Global Management, Inc. is an American asset management firm that primarily invests in alternative assets. As of 2022, the company had $548 billion of assets under management, including $392 billion invested in credit, including mezzanine capital, hedge funds, non-performing loans, and collateralized loan obligations, $99 billion invested in private equity, and $46.2 billion invested in real assets, which includes real estate and infrastructure. The company invests money on behalf of pension funds, financial endowments, and sovereign wealth funds, as well as other institutional and individual investors.
AlpInvest Partners is a global private equity asset manager with over $85 billion of committed capital since inception as of December 31, 2022. The firm invests on behalf of more than 450 institutional investors from North America, Asia, Europe, South America and Africa.
CCMP Capital Advisors, LP is an American private equity investment firm that focuses on leveraged buyout and growth capital transactions. Formerly known as JP Morgan Partners, the investment professionals of JP Morgan Partners separated from JPMorgan Chase on July 31, 2006. CCMP has invested approximately $12 billion in leveraged buyout and growth capital transactions since inception. In 2007, CCMP was ranked #17 among the world's largest private equity funds.
PAI Partners is a French private equity firm based in Paris. It is one of the oldest firms in the sector, with its origins dating back to Paribas Affaires Industrielles, historically the principal investment arm of Paribas, which started operations in 1872.
JLL Partners is an American private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout transactions and leveraged recapitalizations of middle-market companies. The firm is headquartered in New York City, and was founded in 1987. Since its founding JLL Partners has committed approximately $4.7 billion across seven funds. JLL invests in various industries including food and consumer products, automotive parts, health care, media and telecommunications, commodity and specialty chemicals, building products, transportation, and industrial manufacturing and distribution. The company tends to focus on companies requiring an operational turnaround.
J. W. Childs Associates L.P. (JWC) is an American private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout and recapitalization transactions for middle-market growth companies. JWC places particular emphasis on consumer products, healthcare and specialty retail companies.
L Catterton is an American multinational private equity firm. Founded in Greenwich, Connecticut in 1989, the fund has made over 250 investments in brands across all segments of the consumer industry. The firm is led by co-CEOs J. Michael Chu and Scott Dahnke. Originally Catterton Partners, the fund merged with Bernard Arnault's family office and LVMH in 2016 to create L Catterton.
Private equity in the 2000s represents one of the major growth periods in the history of private equity and venture capital. Within the broader private equity industry, two distinct sub-industries, leveraged buyouts and venture capital expanded along parallel and interrelated tracks.
Blackstone Credit, formerly known as GSO Capital Partners (GSO) is an American hedge fund and the credit investment arm of The Blackstone Group. Blackstone Credit is one of the largest credit-oriented alternative asset managers in the world and a major participant in the leveraged finance marketplace. The firm invests across a variety of credit oriented strategies and products including collateralized loan obligation vehicles investing in secured loans, hedge funds focused on special situations investments, mezzanine debt funds and private equity funds focused on rescue financing.
The Cypress Group is a private equity company focused on leveraged buyout investments in companies across a range of industry sectors. At its peak in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Cypress was among the largest US private equity firms, although by the end of the decade the firm would find itself in the process of winding down its operations.
Riverstone Holdings is a multinational private equity firm based in New York City focused on leveraged buyout, growth capital, and credit investments in the energy industry and electrical power industry sectors. The firm focuses on oil and gas exploration, midstream pipelines, electricity generation, energy and power services, energy and power technology, and renewable energy infrastructure and technology. Riverstone has raised approximately $41 billion since the firm's inception in 2000.
Centerbridge Partners is a multi-strategy private investment firm focused on leveraged buyouts and distressed securities.
