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FEATURESMARCH 2020 FORBES ASIAturned former career banker Kapnick, 60, into a billionaire.
Don’t expect populist cries about income inequality to slow
down the blizzard of private equity stake deals coming to
market. In December 2018, Blackstone, which is ramping
up its GP-stake business, bought just under a 10% stake in
a little-known New York City firm called New Mountain
Capital run by a Forstmann Little refugee named Steven
B. Klinsky. Blackstone’s cash injection helped put Klinsky’s
net worth at an estimated $3 billion. (New Mountain ve-
hemently denies Forbes’ valuation, arguing the net present
value assumes success for many years.)
Vista’s Smith has gone as far as to tap the well for a second
helping. In 2017 Dyal bought another sliver of Smith’s firm,
valuing it at $7 billion. Mnaymneh and Tamer of H.I.G. have
also sold a second stake. Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund is
now making investments in general partnerships, as is a
firm run by Jeb Bush and another created by the family of-
fice of Richard and Betsy DeVos.
“There is a need for capital. These businesses can consume
a lot of capital, so the capital is important,” says Dyal Capital’s
Rees. “The vast majority of our invested capital stays in the
business to fund GP commitments and product extensions.”ban, Hao, Bingle and Mondre, all under 52, are billionaires.
A few months after the Silver Lake stake deal, Dyal’s Rees
bought a stake in Starwood Capital, a real-estate-oriented
firm owned by Barry Sternlicht, which now manages $60
billion. Another Dyal deal from 2016 was a near 15% stake
in H.I.G. Capital, a private equity firm run by Sami Mnaym-
neh and Tony Tamer. The stake deal gave Sternlicht an esti-
mated net worth of $3.1 billion. Mnaymneh and Tamer are
now worth $4 billion each. Credit-oriented PE firms—which
have been thriving as heavily regulated bank lenders have re-
treated from riskier loans—are also getting in on the game.
Take the case of Scott Kapnick. A former co-head of in-
vestment banking at Goldman Sachs, Kapnick founded HPS
Investment Partners in 2007 while working for JPMorgan
Chase’s Highbridge Capital hedge fund unit. HPS’ private
credit platform, which specialized in senior debt and mez-
zanine lending, was so successful that Kapnick became CEO
of all of Highbridge when its cofounder billionaire Glenn
Dubin left the bank in 2013. But in 2016, JPMorgan decided
to spin out most of HPS with Kapnick as its CEO.
Fast-forward two years to July 2018 and HPS was man-
KAPNICK: BENNETT RAGLIN/GETTY IMAGES; MONDRE: JARED SISKIN-PMC/GETTY IMAGES; GOLUB: JOHN MINCHILLO/INVISION/APaging $45 billion. Dyal’s tax-advantaged bite of HPS has
KENNETH HAO, 51
SILVER LAKE, MENLO PARK, CA
ASSETS: $43 BIL NET WORTH: $1.2 BIL
Hao expanded the tech private equity firm into key Asian markets by
starting offices in China and Japan. He led Silver Lake’s profitable invest-
ment in Alibaba. Hao joined Silver Lake in 2000 after spending nearly a
decade at San Francisco investment bank Hambrecht & Quist.MIKE BINGLE, 47
SILVER LAKE, MENLO PARK, CA
ASSETS: $43 BIL NET WORTH: $1.2 BIL
Joined firm in 2000, after stints at Apollo Global and Goldman Sachs.
Within a decade became co-head of its North American operations. He
helped close deals for Ameritrade, Virtu Financial, SoFi and Ancestry.com.DAVID GOLUB, 57
GOLUB CAPITAL, NEW YORK CITY
ASSETS: $30 BIL NET WORTH: $1.1 BIL
Joined brother Lawrence in 2003 at Golub Capital, which says it received
no tax benefit from its stake sale. He’s now CEO of the firm’s publicly
traded Golub Capital BDC. After graduating from Harvard, Golub got a
master’s in philosophy from Oxford, where he was a Marshall Scholar, and
an M.B.A. from Stanford. He was the first chairman and a longtime direc-
tor of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.EGON DURBAN, 46
SILVER LAKE, MENLO PARK, CA
ASSETS: $43 BIL NET WORTH: $1.2 BIL
One of four managing partners who now run the
firm, which specializes in tech investments and
manages $43 billion. Durban is best known for
orchestrating high-profile deals for Dell, Motorola
Solutions and Pivotal Software. Was a founding
principal of the firm in 1999.GREG MONDRE, 45
SILVER LAKE, MENLO PARK, CA
ASSETS: $43 BIL NET WORTH: $1.2 BIL
Joined Silver Lake in 1999. He has done deals for
Sabre Corp., Vantage Data Centers, UGS Corp.,
GoDaddy and Motorola Solutions. He first started
doing tech PE deals at TPG and also worked at
Goldman Sachs.LAWRENCE GOLUB, 60
GOLUB CAPITAL, NEW YORK CITY
ASSETS: $30 BIL NET WORTH: $1.1 BIL
Founder of Golub Capital, which says it received
no tax benefit from its stake sale. A former banker
with stints at Allen & Co., Wasserstein Perella and
Bankers Trust, Golub founded Golub Capital in 1994
as a traditional leveraged buyout firm. In 2001, he
pivoted and turned the firm into a lender, mostly to
other PE firms like Vista Equity and Thoma Bravo.
Since the crisis, assets have grown fifteenfold.SCOTT KAPNICK, 60
HPS INVESTMENT PARTNERS, NEW YORK CITY
ASSETS: $55 BIL NET WORTH: $1.4 BIL
Formerly CEO of Highbridge Capital, the hedge
fund and credit manager owned by JPMorgan.
Kapnick started at Goldman Sachs, where he rose
to co-head of investment banking and co-CEO
of Goldman Sachs International. He joined High-
bridge in 2007 after its sale to JPMorgan to build
a credit business. In 2016, JPMorgan divested HPS.
Assets have since ballooned.