International Corporate Finance

INTERNATIONAL CORPORATE FINANCE 50 LEADERS

Leaders League. Does being a woman give

you an edge in the private equity world,

an industry considered to be dominated

by men, or does it add to the challenges?

Tania Daguere-Lindbäck. It is a bit of both.

Being a woman does give you an edge as you

tend to stand out and can be easier to remem-

ber. Depending on who you are meeting, it

can on occasions be a bit of a challenge, al-

beit not an unsurmountable one. At the end

of the day, the only thing that really matters

is getting the job done.

Leaders League. In your view, what are

the secrets of conducting a successful

buyout?

T.D.L. The private equity market is very

competitive, multiples can get inflated and

it can be difficult to find a company to

buy where we are not in competition with

someone else. So we try to be selective and

pick deals we want to spend time on.

We are also price-disciplined, so when we

find a company we would like to invest in,

we try to find angles or upsides that allow us

to gain insight and help us to be more com-

petitive. This can range from a company’s

add-on acquisition potential, the ability to

expand into other markets and a differen-

tiated view on the market or growth cycle.

Backing a good management team is also

key. We have made good returns investing

in companies in difficult, volatile sectors by

backing a strong team with a differentiated

strategy or the ability to adapt when the en-

vironment they operate in changes.

Leaders League. How important is diver-

sification, both in terms of sector and geo-

graphy, for private equity funds?

T.D.L. It is important, both from a deal ge-

neration and fund performance perspective.

From a deal generation perspective, it allows

you to adapt your investment strategy de-

pending on where you are in the cycle, for

example investing in less cyclical businesses

at the peak of a cycle. The same holds true

in terms of geography. Whilst Europe is ty-

pically a quarter to one-third of any of our

funds, the allocation may vary through the

cycle depending on the deal environment in

Europe in comparison to other regions.

Having said that, it does not necessarily

mean you need to cover all sectors and all

geographies – some markets or sectors gene-

rate too limited a deal flow to justify having a

dedicated team solely focused on them.

Leaders League. Blackstone is a leader in

the private equity space. It is said that the

firm’s success is driven by its open work

culture. Could you elaborate on this?

T.D.L. We pride ourselves on having a very

open work culture. An example of this is

the Monday morning meeting which is an

institution at Blackstone. All global teams

gather every Monday to discuss the live

deals we are working on. This includes

New York, London, Mumbai and Asia. They

provide a forum to discuss deal situations

as well as an update on the general market

and deal environment. These meetings are

important as they help to provide a broad

view of what’s going on across all sectors

and regions, as opposed to being focused

on the day-to-day of one’s own market or

sector.

Similarly, on deals the full deal team partici-

pates in investment committee discussions.

Everybody is expected to have a view, and

therefore deals tend to be discussed inten-

sely. Decisions are not made behind closed

doors but in an open forum and debated at

length.

This has the benefit of ensuring both a trans-

parent process and an opportunity for eve-

ryone on the team to participate in the de-

bate and the decision-making process.

And finally, despite the fact that we have

grown so much in the past decade, most

people have been at Blackstone for a while

which has allowed for continuity of culture.

Tania Daguere-Lindbäck, Managing Director at Blackstone, walks us through the

investment strategy of one of the largest global alternative investment managers, and

highlights factors that matter for the firm as well as set it apart from its competitors in

today’s highly competitive private equity industry.

“Being selective and deciding which deals

to pursue early on helps maintain focus”

TANIA DAGUERE-LINDBÄCK

Managing Director, Private Equity,

BLACKSTONE

EXPRESS BIO

Tania Daguere-Lindbäck is a Managig

Director in the Private Equity Group.

Since joining Blackstone in 2004,

she has been involved in the execution

of Blackstone’s investments in Sulo,

Centerparcs, ICS and Pulse.

Before Blackstone, Tania worked

at Goldman Sachs in the mergers

& acquisitions division in London and

Paris. She holds a Diplôme de Grande

Ecole from HEC Paris with a Master’s

Degree in Finance.

Assets Under Management

$356 billion

Private Equity Portfolio

$100 billion

Offices

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