BC Partners highlights a different reason to sell a slice of your firm

News this week of Blackstone’s acquisition of a minority stake in European firm BC Partners was – in many ways – business as usual. We are now used to seeing established firms selling interests to the likes of Blackstone’s Strategic Capital Holdings or its competitors Dyal Capital Partners and Goldman Sachs’ Petershill funds. The capital injection is often used – as it will be in this case – to meet a demand for bigger GP commitments.

What struck us about this deal was that BC Partners said it would be “leveraging Blackstone’s best-in-class resources and exceptional talent:” a surprising statement given this is a financial, rather than strategic, investment from a shareholder that must class as a competitor in some instances.

Jonathan Brasse, senior editor for sister title PERE, did some digging and explains that BC Partners 25 portfolio companies will be able to tap into the Blackstone’s “Global Portfolio Operations platform,” a team of approximately 35 professionals, and take advantage of the bigger firm’s purchasing power in everything from health insurance to FedEx accounts.

Has your firm sold an equity stake to an outside investor? We’d love to hear your experiences. Email me at toby.m@peimedia.com.

Elsewhere, if you want a refresher on how to allocate carry to good and bad leavers, read this briefing.

Have a good weekend.

Email prepared by Toby Mitchenall.