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EY to spend $1b expanding PE biz; family offices up allocation to PE; Bain Capital invests in sous vide

Good morning, Hubsters. MK Flynn here on the Wire.

More money. While there may be plenty of recessionary clouds on the horizon, private equity may provide a comparatively safe harbor to ride out the storm. Rich people see to think so anyway.  

“Family offices managing vast fortunes for wealthy individuals have increased their allocation to private equity from about 15 per cent in 2019 to a fifth last year — the largest gain for any asset class,” reports the Financial Times. “Many plan to keep putting more money into private companies over the next five years, according to a report by Swiss bank UBS.”

Pivotal time. I take it as a sign of health for the private equity industry that yesterday EY announced it will spend $1 billion over the next four years to expand its PE business. The investment will focus on building capabilities within value creation, portfolio transformation and transaction deal leadership services.

The global professional services firm also said it has appointed Bridget Walsh as EY Global Private Equity Leader, effective 1 July. Walsh has worked with PE firms for 20 years and currently serves as EY EMEIA Managing Partner – Tax.

Walsh takes on the new position at “a pivotal time, not only for the EY business, but the private equity industry overall,” as she put it.  

She succeeds Bill Stoffel, who passed away in December after spending three decades at the firm building EY’s PE services.

Recession resiliency. “We like the fact that the food sector tends to be a necessity and stable,” said Bain Capital managing director Cristian Jitianu in an interview with PE Hub’s Obey Martin Manayiti. “We expect it to be more recession-resilient than most other consumer sectors.”

Bain Capital earlier this week took a minority stake in Cuisine Solutions, a Sterling, Virginia based maker of sous vide products, through a $250 million investment. 

Read the full story for more on the deal.

That’s all for now. PE Hub’s Aaron Weitzman writes the Wire on Fridays, so I’ll see you Monday!

Until then,                                                                    

MK

Read the full wire commentary on PE Hub ...

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