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1 day ago | 
investopedia.com | Isabel O'Brien
Shareholder perks offered by wine companies are on the rise, with a growing number of wine producers rewarding investors not only with potential financial returns but also with discounts on wine, access to exclusive tastings and events, and other nontraditional benefits. Knowing which wine companies offer these kinds of perks isn't exactly straightforward. The vast majority of wine producers are private companies, especially small-to medium-sized operations, meaning public disclosures are scarce.
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1 month ago | 
themiddlemarket.com | Isabel O'Brien
The private infrastructure asset class has a problem with net asset valuations. GPs self-report their portfolios’ worth, third-party accounting firms verify this work, and LPs make investment decisions based on these figures — but many question the methodologies used for these calculations.
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2 months ago | 
themiddlemarket.com | Isabel O'Brien
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) launched the fourth vintage of its flagship infrastructure fund series, North Haven Infrastructure Partners IV, in 2022. By March 2023, the fund had raised $4 billion. It stayed in the market for another two years, stagnant. Here’s what happened. In March, the fund closed at just $4.1 billion — nearly $2 billion shy of its $6 billion target and lower than its third vintage, which closed at $5.5 billion in 2019, just six months after its first close.
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Dec 11, 2024 | 
theguardian.com | Isabel O'Brien
TikTok’s annual carbon footprint is probably larger than that of Greece, according to a new analysis of the social media platform’s environmental impact, with the average user generating greenhouse gases equivalent to driving an extra 123 miles in a gasoline-powered car each year.
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Nov 29, 2024 | 
cleantechiq.com | Isabel O'Brien
When it comes to protecting biodiversity, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the private sector will need to take the lead, because the public sector isn’t. That was in evidence at COP16 in October and November.
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Oct 10, 2024 | 
valueaddpe.com | Isabel O'Brien
Family offices have been around for years – longer than private equity firms. However, in recent years the number of family offices has exploded. According to Preqin, the number of family offices in the world tripled between 2019 and 2024, managing upwards of $6 trillion in assets. By 2030, Deloitte Private expects the number of family offices to be larger than the number of hedge funds.
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Oct 3, 2024 | 
valueaddpe.com | Isabel O'Brien
Most anti-private equity activists will cite a famous 2019 study by California State Polytechnic University researchers Rastad and Ayash that finds that private equity-owned companies are 10x more likely than their non-private equity-owned counterparts to go bankrupt. The study uses data from LBOs that occurred between 1980 and 2006, pre-Global Financial Crisis. These were the days of private equity deals like Nabisco and Toys R Us – deals that quite publicly played out in a bad light.
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Sep 26, 2024 | 
valueaddpe.com | Isabel O'Brien
Despite the between LPs on the value of ESG in operations, Apollo has maintained an ESG-focused team within its greater operational business. According to Apollo, despite the headlines that may suggest otherwise, the firm’s LPs want to see action on ESG. “Overall, LPs don’t all have the same demands or expectations on ESG.
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Sep 15, 2024 | 
theguardian.com | Isabel O'Brien
Big tech has made some big claims about greenhouse gas emissions in recent years. But as the rise of artificial intelligence creates ever bigger energy demands, it’s getting hard for the industry to hide the true costs of the data centers powering the tech revolution. According to a Guardian analysis, from 2020 to 2022 the real emissions from the “in-house” or company-owned data centers of Google, Microsoft, Meta and Apple are probably about 662% – or 7.62 times – higher than officially reported.
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Aug 29, 2024 | 
valueaddpe.com | Isabel O'Brien
Add-on acquisitions have consistently made up the bulk of buyout transactions since 2016, according to Pitchbook data. In 2022 alone, they accounted for 77% of all buyout activity. And for good reasons – add-ons are cheaper, easier, and a solid way to deploy capital in a less-than-stellar dealmaking environment. Despite the popularity of the model, The Riverside Company has found a way to put its own spin on it by thinking small. “We are a pretty unique animal.
