Lee Equity sees retirement industry opportunities; Great Hill on Totango and Catalyst merger

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Lee Equity sees retirement industry opportunities; Great Hill on Totango and Catalyst merger

Morning Hubsters, Craig McGlashan here with the Tuesday Wire.

We’re starting off with a deep dive into retirement planning. Danny Rodriguez of Lee Equity Partners talks PE Hub through his firm’s investment in PCS Retirement, a retirement plan provider.

Next, we move to customer success software, where Great Hill Partners’ Christopher Gaffney explains the rationale behind merging former rivals Totango and Catalyst.

Switching to exits, we take a brief look at GTCR selling a comms and payments company to Frazier Healthcare Partnersbefore I shoutout an article from PE Hub Europe where Hg’s Steven Batchelor explains howhis firmhasmanaged to notch-up 29 liquidity events across its buyout funds through 2022 and 2023.

We’ll then finish with a recap of our PEI Group NEXUS 2024 stories so far.

Retirement planning

Danny Rodriguez, a partner at Lee Equity Partners, explains why his firm took a majority stake in PCS Retirement, a Philadelphia-based provider of retirement plans, in an interview with PE Hub’s Obey Martin Manayiti.

Find out more in the subscriber version of the Wire.

Better together

Next up, PE Hub’s Rafael Cantonhears from Great Hill Partners managing director Christopher Gaffney about why his firm decided to merge Totango and Catalyst, former rivals in the customer success software business.

The rationale is revealed in the subscriber version of the Wire.

Exit science

Yesterday we wrote about how consultancy Bain & Co’s Global Private Equity Report 2024 had found “green shoots” of recovery for dealmaking, but that the exit market was still difficult, as it had been for over 18 months.

Deals are still getting done, of course. Just today, GTCR announcedthat it had sold RevSpring, an end-to-end communication and payments company servicing healthcare and financial services companies, to Frazier Healthcare Partners.

Through 2022 and 2023, software-focused investor Hg had 29 cashback events across its buyout funds. Nina Lindholmdecided to find out how the London-based investor managed that over on PE Hub Europe.

NEXUS 2024 so far

We have plenty more reporting from PEI Group’s NEXUS 2024 to come, including our editor-in-chief MK Flynn’sFireside Chat with Thoma Bravo’s Orlando Bravo. But in the meantime, here’s a roundup of our coverage so far:

• KKR’s Nuttall: Big returns to be had after cycle bottom

• Blackstone’s Jonathan Gray: ‘M&A will come back’

• Carlyle’s David Rubenstein sets sights on individual investors

OK that’s all from me today – Chris Witkowsky is back in the chair tomorrow for Wire Wednesday after his stint at NEXUS.

Cheers,

Craig

Read the full wire commentary on PE Hub ...

Also of note (may require subscriptions)

The latest in PE Hub Europe's series on senior women in private equity is a conversation with Hayley Winter, an investment director at Montagu Private Equity. She touches on her time in the industry, including a deal involving Janes, an open source intelligence provider for the aerospace, defence and security sectors.

Speaking at PEI Group’s NEXUS 2024 summit last week, Allen Waldrop, director of private equity at Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, said he can get on board with management fees charged on continuation funds, as long as he understands the rationale for such transactions. (Private Equity International)

Cathay Life, historically one of Asia’s most active LPs, is offloading a portfolio of private equity stakes to HarbourVest Partners. (Secondaries Invester)

Nautic Partners, a low-profile private equity shop with a nearly four-decade history, is back in the market with an 11th flagship buyout offering. (Buyouts)

Co-investments comprised nearly half of the private equity commitments made by California Public Employees’ Retirement System in 2023. (Buyouts)

Infrastructure funds and investors are experiencing significant struggles with fibre investments in North America and Europe amid a series of sectoral challenges, Infrastructure Investor can reveal.

Oaktree’s Howard Marks sees a secular change in the investing backdrop: In a video from PEI Group’s NEXUS 2024, the 'oracle of credit investing' rates the Fed, the banking system and private credit, and discusses interest rates and the upside of excesses. (Private Debt Investor)

Rede Partners has tapped Lazard for its new head of strategic capital advisory. Riccardo Villa joins the London-headquartered placement agent in the newly created role, where he will advise firms accessing capital at both the portfolio and corporate level, according to a statement. (Secondaries Investor)

They said it

“Most Americans are under saved for retirement and they do not have enough savings to retire and maintain the same lifestyle that they had pre-retirement.”

— Danny Rodriguez, partner, Lee Equity Partners, on investing in PCS Retirement