Latest news with #Permira
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Private equity co-CEO: It's a 'hard selling environment' for deals and capital raising
Listen, like, and subscribe to Opening Bid on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. The private equity industry hasn't been immune to the long arm of the Trump administration's policy uncertainty. The volatility is leading to a cooling IPO and M&A market. A key question for the power brokers involved: When will deal activity and exits get back to a normal rhythm? "In general, the industry has seen fewer distributions in a very hard selling environment across the board for the industry. And so LPs [limited partners] are seeing less returns, less cash coming in that they could then commit on the way out," Permira co-CEO Brian Ruder said on a new episode of Yahoo Finance's Opening Bid podcast (watch above; listen-only below). This embedded content is not available in your region. Since its 1985 founding, Permira has put more than $80 billion of capital to work, with a specialty in the consumer and technology spaces. Some of its most headline-grabbing plays have been an early stake in buy now, pay later platform Klarna in 2015 and a deal last year to purchase Squarespace for $6.9 billion. The company boasts 80 companies in its investment portfolio. Ruder, who has been at the firm for more than 16 years, became co-CEO of Permira alongside Dipan Patel in September 2024. The two are managing through a soft stretch for the PE industry. The value of global buyout deals in the second quarter of 2025 is poised to drop by 16% compared to the first quarter, according to a new report from consultancy Bain & Company. For the first time in a decade, no buyout fund closed in the first quarter raised more than $5 billion, the report found. Yahoo Finance's Invest conference is coming soon — register here Across alternative asset classes, demand for capital is now triple the supply, making it the largest imbalance dating back to 2011. "Tariff turbulence has shaken the world, but it hasn't broken the private equity market. However, the pressure within the industry — to find exits, distribute funds, source fresh capital, and then put it to work — continues to mount," Bain & Company's Hugh MacArthur said. Ruder added that the allure of IPOs has also simmered down, stunting the exit process for PE players. "I think there is a lot more realism we find in the private markets and kind of the later-stage growth companies of just how burdensome it is to be a public company," Ruder explained. "It's the regulatory disclosure requirements. It's really a shareholder base that can be very impatient. I mean, despite the reputation of private investors being very detail-oriented and kind of in your face, it's very hard to achieve the kind of transformations that we can achieve in the private market within the public market." Three times each week, Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi fields insight-filled conversations and chats with the biggest names in business and markets on Opening Bid. You can find more episodes on our video hub or watch on your preferred streaming service. Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor and a member of Yahoo Finance's editorial leadership team. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Private equity co-CEO: It's a 'hard selling environment' for deals and capital raising
Listen, like, and subscribe to Opening Bid on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. The private equity industry hasn't been immune to the long arm of the Trump administration's policy uncertainty. The volatility is leading to a cooling IPO and M&A market. A key question for the power brokers involved: When will deal activity and exits get back to a normal rhythm? "In general, the industry has seen fewer distributions in a very hard selling environment across the board for the industry. And so LPs [limited partners] are seeing less returns, less cash coming in that they could then commit on the way out," Permira co-CEO Brian Ruder said on a new episode of Yahoo Finance's Opening Bid podcast (watch above; listen-only below). This embedded content is not available in your region. Since its 1985 founding, Permira has put more than $80 billion of capital to work, with a specialty in the consumer and technology spaces. Some of its most headline-grabbing plays have been an early stake in buy now, pay later platform Klarna in 2015 and a deal last year to purchase Squarespace for $6.9 billion. The company boasts 80 companies in its investment portfolio. Ruder, who has been at the firm for more than 16 years, became co-CEO of Permira alongside Dipan Patel in September 2024. The two are managing through a soft stretch for the PE industry. The value of global buyout deals in the second quarter of 2025 is poised to drop by 16% compared to the first quarter, according to a new report from consultancy Bain & Company. For the first time in a decade, no buyout fund closed in the first quarter raised more than $5 billion, the report found. Yahoo Finance's Invest conference is coming soon — register here Across alternative asset classes, demand for capital is now triple the supply, making it the largest imbalance dating back to 2011. "Tariff turbulence has shaken the world, but it hasn't broken the private equity market. However, the pressure within the industry — to find exits, distribute funds, source fresh capital, and then put it to work — continues to mount," Bain & Company's Hugh MacArthur said. Ruder added that the allure of IPOs has also simmered down, stunting the exit process for PE players. "I think there is a lot more realism we find in the private markets and kind of the later-stage growth companies of just how burdensome it is to be a public company," Ruder explained. "It's the regulatory disclosure requirements. It's really a shareholder base that can be very impatient. I mean, despite the reputation of private investors being very detail-oriented and kind of in your face, it's very hard to achieve the kind of transformations that we can achieve in the private market within the public market." Three times each week, Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi fields insight-filled conversations and chats with the biggest names in business and markets on Opening Bid. You can find more episodes on our video hub or watch on your preferred streaming service. Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor and a member of Yahoo Finance's editorial leadership team. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Private equity hit by deal slump as trade fears rise
You can catch Opening Bid on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. The year has turned a bit south for those heavy hitters in the private equity industry as Trump trade turmoil ratchets up angst with companies and top leaders. The value of global buyout deals in the second quarter of this year is poised to drop by 16% compared to the first quarter, according to a new report from consultancy Bain. For the first time in a decade, no buyout fund closed in the first quarter raised more than $5 billion, the report found. Across alternative asset classes, demand now outstrips supply by three times – making it the largest imbalance dating back to 2011. Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi sits down on the Opening Bid podcast with Permira co-CEO Brian Ruder. Permira is a major player in the private equity industry, with a specialty in the consumer and technology spaces. Since being founded in 1985, it has put more than $80 billion of capital to work on deals. Some of its most headline-grabbing plays have been an early stake in Klarna ( in 2015 and a deal last year to purchase Squarespace for $6.9 billion. The company boasts 80 companies as part of its investment portfolio. Ruder shares with Sozzi how Permira is navigating the more challenging backdrop for the private equity industry in terms of doing deals to exiting prior ones. For full episodes of Opening Bid, listen on your favorite podcast platform or watch on our website. Yahoo Finance's Opening Bid is produced by Langston Sessoms
CNBC
12-06-2025
- Business
- CNBC
U.S. uncertainty is handing Europe a huge opportunity
Europe is being urged to capitalize on the volatility of the Trump administration, as shifts in capital and private market flows suggest U.S. exceptionalism is waning and losing out to a resurgent Europe. The numbers tell part of the story, with Europe's Stoxx 600 up over 8% compared to a 5% jump for the S&P 500 since Nov. 1, 2024, just days ahead of the U.S. election. Bank of America said in a report dated June 5 that U.S. equities had seen outflows of $7.5 billion over the previous three weeks, while European stocks benefited from inflows of $2.6 billion over the same period. Earlier this year, meanwhile, data from Morningstar showed that investors withdrew 2.8 billion euros ($3.2 billion) from U.S. equity ETFs in the month to the middle of March, while shifting 14.6 billion euros into European ETFs. Goldman Sachs International Co-CEO Anthony Gutman told CNBC that the convergence in U.S. and European growth rates came about quickly this year and was a big factor prompting investors to shift money toward Europe. "In January, sentiment felt very strong in the U.S., it felt somewhat more muted in Europe. You roll the clock forward and now the picture has changed fairly dramatically, that's to the benefit of Europe in many cases. Europe is getting more capital inflows and there is more optimism in Europe," Gutman told CNBC's Annette Weisbach Wednesday on the sidelines of the Goldman Sachs European Financials Conference in Berlin. Meanwhile, in private markets, talk of the breakdown of U.S. exceptionalism dominated the Super Return forum in Berlin last week. Carlyle Group's Managing Director Mark Jenkins told CNBC that, "in Europe, we've seen a lot of great opportunity and think we can pick up greater returns here relative to the risk you're taking in the U.S." This sentiment was echoed by private equity giant Permira, which holds private equity funds and credit vehicles representing around 60 billion euros worth of capital under management. "If you look at Europe at the moment, firstly, capital is cheaper, if you look at the trend of where euro rates are going versus dollar rates are going, you can fund and finance things cheaper here. Secondly, valuations are cheaper, you can buy great companies for less," Permira Executive Chairman Kurt Björklund told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Tuesday. "Thirdly the innovation cycle is growing exponentially in Europe … there is an enormous number of highly innovative companies that are growing in a disruptive and global way," he added. All eyes are now on the potential for an EU-U.S. trade deal — which is proving trickier to pin down than with some other countries, including the U.K. Referencing the complexity of the behemoth that is the European Union, Siemens Energy Chairman Joe Kaeser told CNBC that the EU is "politically not ready to strike these types of deals." The White House hinted on Wednesday that a July 9 deadline for a deal may be movable, however, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent saying: "It is highly likely that for those countries that are negotiating — or trading blocs, in the case of the EU — who are negotiating in good faith, we will roll the date forward to continue the good faith negotiation." French President Emmanuel Macron also struck an optimistic tone, telling CNBC's Karen Tso on Wednesday: "I'm sure that we will find, at the end of the day, a good solution." Unicredit CEO Andrea Orcel stressed that the opportunity for Europe's continued revival lies in its own hands, however. He explained that the 27-member European Union could galvanize amid the fracturing of Europe's relationship with the U.S., but warned that investors can also be fickle. The expectation is that "there will be convergence, there will be a banking union, there will be a capital markets union. There will be a lot of spend on infrastructure, on defense... That's exciting for the market, therefore money flowing in," Orcel told CNBC Wednesday. "But if, little by little, investors realize that this is lip service, but it doesn't really happen. Money will flow back in a nanosecond, and you will see [that] very quickly." Europe is faced with a "phenomenal opportunity," he added. "We have every reason to be ... on par with the U.S., but it's our fault if we don't do it."
CNBC
10-06-2025
- Business
- CNBC
European-based private market firms 'growing and flourishing'
Permira Executive Chairman Kurt Björklund says a European base has proven incredibly valuable as firms look to capitalise on investment opportunities across the continent
