Private equity’s growing interest in RIAs; The Riv erside Company details Wa ll Street Prep investment

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Private equity’s growing interest in RIAs; The Riverside Company details Wall Street Prep investment

Good morning dealmakers, it’s Obey Martin Manayiti with the US edition of the Wire from the New York newsroom.

The Registered Investment Advisory (RIA) business, a part of the wealth management sector, is increasingly drawing the attention of private equity investors. We are opening the newsletter with my feature that looks at factors making RIA compelling to PE. I spoke with investment bankers from Houlihan Lokey and William Blair as well as deal advisers from DeVoe & Company, among others, and I looked at plenty of deal examples. Stay tuned for more below.

Next, the Riverside Company announced the acquisition of Wall Street Prep (WSP) this morning. PE Hub got an interview with Peter Tsang, co-chief investment officer, Riverside Capital Appreciation (RCAF), to discuss opportunities that Riverside identified with this deal and how the firm plans to scale WSP. More on that below.

Share the wealth

M&A activity in the RIA industry surged to new heights in 2024, setting records for the most active year in history, a recent report from DeVoe & Company noted, and private equity-backed transactions represented the majority.

Upgrade to the premium version of the Wire to read more about this story.

Financial modelling

The Riverside Company has announced an investment in Wall Street Prep (WSP), an online training platform for financial professionals including investment banks, private equity firms, Fortune 1000 companies, business schools and others.

Riverside acquired WSP from Eden Capital, which invested in the company in 2021.

Peter Tsang, co-chief investment officer, Riverside Capital Appreciation (RCAF), discussed opportunities that the PE firm identified with this deal.

Premium subscribers to the Wire can read more about the interview.

That’s it for me today. As always, I’d love to hear from you at obey.m@pei.group.

Craig McGlashan will bring you tomorrow’s Europe Wire, while Rafael Canton will bring you the US edition.

Cheers,

Obey

Read the full Wire commentary on PE Hub ...

Also of note (may require subscriptions)

Archimed is eyeing another diagnostics company after selling Italian company Diesse for €125 million, managing partner Vincent Guillaumot told PE Hub.

New Mountain Capital has upsized its continuation fund deal for portfolio company Real Chemistry after receiving oversubscribed demand, with the deal expected to raise around $3 billion, secondaries market sources told Buyouts.

Lower mid-market firm Northrim Horizon, which employs a “buy, build and compound strategy,” has closed its third fund with a $235 million raise. (Buyouts)

TPG, through its Rise Climate Infrastructure fund, has agreed to acquire US solar energy company Altus Power, according to a statement. (New Private Markets)

Infra-debt investor PIC casts net wider as opportunities dry up: The UK pension scheme insurer is happy to partner with GPs, wary of renewables and digs deep for opportunities in a competitive market. (Infrastructure Investor)

Less than a year after joining Partners Group, Karim Habra is set to vacate his role as global co-head of real estate at the Swiss firm, PERE has learned.

StepStone Group is nearing a close on its fifth real estate secondaries fund, which has already surpassed its predecessor by $1 billion. (Secondaries Investor)

World Fund, a venture capital firm focused on climate tech, will start raising its second fund this year with a target of more than €500 million, according to co-founder Danijel Višević. (New Private Markets)

British environmental consultancy Biodiverse Consulting has launched a brokerage service for biodiversity net gain credits. The service will partner landowners with developers who need to buy BNG credits to receive planning permission for their development. (Agri Investor)

Multiplicity Partners, a Zurich-based secondaries firm, has closed its fourth fund after a year-long fundraising campaign. The firm, which focuses on tail-end and special situation opportunities, closed LTO Fund IV on its hard-cap of $160 million, according to a statement. (Secondaries Investor)

Deals

They said it

“One of the main reasons for the prevalence of minority deals is the favorable supply/demand dynamics in the sector skewed to issuers, enabling them to drive terms that are not typical in other sectors. A significant majority of the PE investment in the space have been in the form of minority deals.”

— Matthew Gelber, a managing director at Houlihan Lokey, regarding the rise of RIA investments among PE firms.

Today's letter was prepared by Obey Martin Manayiti

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