Dan Primack

BNY Mellon today released the results of a study showing that around 80% of limited partners expect private equity allocations to remain steady or rise over the next several years. The bank also surveyed GP sentiment, with Asian PE pros expressing the most bullish outlook. Not surprisingly, both sides say that management and transaction fees will be the highest priority during upcoming fund negotiations. Download the release here. You also can get more docs in the peHUB File Room.

TowerBrook Capital Partners yesterday announced that it has partnered with John Janitz and Dom Schiano to explore investments in the industrial and related sectors. The pair previously served as “industry partners” with DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, and remain listed on the DLJMB website. Also still listed is fellow industry partner Scott Marden, who left two months ago to join Compass Partners (along with a couple of principals). All of this should serve as a reminder that DLJMB is nowhere near raising a new fund. It’s still investing out of a $2.1 billion vehicle that closed in Q3 2006, and which has less than $150 million left in uncommitted capital (following a recent $165m infusion info Swiss smart metering co. Landis+Gyr).

Turnaround consultancy Conway MacKenzie had a cocktail reception scheduled for last Thursday, as a belated introduction to New York City (it opened shop there two years ago). But it also had a big problem: Lawrence Taylor. You see, Conway Mackenzie had booked Taylor to appear at the event, to sign autographs for attendees, etc. It even featured Taylor's name on the invitation (see below). Unfortunately, last Thursday also is the day that Taylor was booked for statatory rape, after allegedly hiring an underage prostitute to join him in a Rockland County hotel room. "I landed in New York City at around 11am, and got all call about various contingency plans," says CEO Van Conway. "I said, 'Contingency for what?'" Conway MacKenzie had used a sports booking agency, and soon managed to secure NY Jets head coach Rex Ryan (seen in photo with Van Conway). To be honest, he probably would have been a better

The Blackstone Group plans to close its latest mega-fund by the end of next month with around $12 billion, according to multiple sources. The vehicle was originally pitched with a $20 billion target in October 2007, and then later downsized to $15 billion. For nearly the past year, it’s been stuck at around $9 billion. The $12 billion figure isn’t definitive, as there still are a bunch of potential LP commitments that need to be hard circled. But it should be pretty close. My initial thoughts were twofold: (1) That’s still a pretty good raise given fundraising market conditions, and (2) It means Blackstone will need to club up for those $10 billion+ mega-deals it likes to do (more Fidelity Nationals, fewer Hiltons).

My weekly video spot with Reuters Insider is about KKRs decision to sell $500 million worth of shares on the New York Stock Exchange. The offering either will come simultaneous to KKR transfering its listing from Amsterdam to New York, or shortly thereafter. Per usual, I'm filming just a few yards away from the home office...

Award-winning poet Sophie Cabot Black has some verse featured in an upcoming issue of The New Yorker, but her subject matter isn't love, grief or epiphany. Instead, she takes an odd turn toward private equity. Her conclusion: Used. To draw out more than what is put in. Everyone wants beyond; even with the one last page As exit plan it is the return that is watched and how We will be known. To end up where we start Again, and to look as if we gained. Read the entire poem here

KKR is expected to list on the New York Stock Exchange sometime this summer, in what many have referred to as the private equity giant’s “IPO.” I’ve steadfastly resisted the acronym, because KKR had not indicated plans to “offer” anything. Instead, it simply was transferring its listing from Amsterdam to New York. As such, I began […]

The Riverside Company just announced that its Microcap Fund has bought Mansell Group, an Atlanta-based email marketing company. No financial terms were disclosed, except that fifth Fifth Street Capital provided debt financing. Not the sort of thing that typically gets a stand-alone blog post, but Mansell isn't just any virtual postmaster. For the past five years, it's been responsible for sending out peHUB Wire each morning (58k subscribers and counting... join here).

California AG Jerry Brown yesterday filed civil charges against former CalPERS CEO Fred Buenrostro and ex-CalPERS board member Al Villalobos, alleging fraud related to CalPERS investments in private equity firms Apollo Management and Aurora Capital Group. No charges against the firms -- both of which had hired Villalobos as a placement agent to secure fund commitments from CalPERS and other public pension systems. This news should not come as a surprise to peHUB readers. We've known for quite some time that Brown was investigating CalPERS, and also that there were some obvious problems with the Villalobos-CalPERS relationship. For example, we reported last October that Villalobos was not a registered broker-dealer when pitching Apollo funds. Seems that's in violation of California law. We also wondered about a series of placement agent disclosure forms, which CalPERS released last year with Buenrostro's signature. More specifically, we wondered why they had a fax stamp from Apollo, as if CalPERS didn't have its own copies. According to Brown, they didn't (and never did).

I feel a bit like Lloyd Bridges in Airplane, when he picks the wrong day to quit drinking, quit sniffing glue, etc. Seems I picked the wrong day to take an afternoon drive from New York to Boston. At around the time I was cruising past Bridgeport, California AG Jerry Brown filed a civil suit against for CalPERS CEO Fred Buenrostro and his placement agent pal Alfred Villalobos. In related news, CalPERS private equity chief Leon Shahinian has been placed on "administrative leave." This information comes from a memo sent by CalPERS CIO Joe Dear to private equity and venture capital firms in which CalPERS has invested. It also said: "If your organization has given permission to Leon Shahinian to access any CalPERS related information via the web or any other remote access, please have his account suspended." Shahinian is not being charged in the civil complaint, but is cited repeatedly for accepting gifts from Villalobos. I'm just now beginning to piece some things together, and will have a full report either later tonight or tomorrow morning. Suffice to say, this has been a long time coming. In the meantime, you can download the complaint.