Morning Hubs! This is Chris, on for Wire Wednesday. It was great to see some of you last week at our inaugural NEXUS private equity conference in Orlando. The event exceeded my expectations in terms of speakers, attendees and food. Hope to see more of you there next year! • Thoma Bravo returned more than $13bn to LPs in tough exit environment • Exits not likely to get easier any time soon, according to Bain & Co. • Advent talks about growth of Sovos Brands, which it agreed to sell to Campbell Soup Co. • My interview (on camera!) with Grafine Partners’ founder Elizabeth Weymouth about challenges of first-time fundraising Exits The focus in private equity this year is on how GPs can achieve exits for their LPs, who need a strong flow of distributions from their private equity portfolios to keep up their pace of new commitments. Which makes it notable that Thoma Bravo last year, at a time when exits were well down across the industry, had one of the best periods for realizations, returning more than $13 billion to investors. Read more here on PE Hub. Slow going Speaking of exits, Bain & Co.’s global PE report has sparked conversation across the industry (as usual), this time with a focus on the exit environment. While Thoma Bravo found exits last year, much of the industry has been suffering from a slow exit environment. Check out PE Hub’s coverage of the report here. Soup Advent International announced its exit of Sovos Brands for $2.7 billion to Campbell Soup Co. this week, a company it took public in 2021. PE Hub reporter Rafael Canton spoke with Jeff Case, managing director at Advent, about the growth of Sovos. Read more here on PE Hub. New shops We published a video of my interview with Elizabeth Weymouth, founder and managing partner of Grafine Partners, which seeds and supports new PE shops. Weymouth, who worked at Riverstone Holdings before forming Grafine, talked about the tough fundraising environment and ways in which new firms can stand out. Watch it here on Buyouts. That’s it for me! Have a great rest of your Wednesday. Hit me up with tips n’ gossip, feedback or as always, great book recommendations at christopher.w@pei.group or find me on LinkedIn. Read the full wire commentary on PE Hub ... |