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The Tidal Financial Group (Tidal) expanded rapidly over the last decade and encompassed multiple ETF related brands including Toroso Investments, Tidal ETF Services, and the ETF Think Tank. Going forward all activity will be unified under the Tidal brand as we become one company, dream, family, and platform focused on holistic ETF customer solutions.

Get Think Tanked Distilled with Tyler Bain

Private equity is an asset class that may be confusing to many investors, but it’s increasingly being viewed as a necessary part of one’s asset allocation. Because of the lack of publicly available information and its reputation as a high-risk asset class, many could benefit from someone who specializes in the space. Tyler Bain, the Managing Director of Primark Capital, and Steve McCourt, the Co-CEO of Meketa, have years of experience in the private equity markets and join the ETF Think Tank to discuss them.

McCourt explains that private equity has been around for about 40 years and has evolved quite a bit during that time. Recently, it’s been elevated to a point of “normalcy” in asset allocations. The benefits of private equity are higher returns, higher risk-adjusted returns, and diversification. The exposures within private equity can be very different from what’s available in publicly traded stocks.

McCourt’s firm focuses on building portfolios of companies that are generating free cash flow and producing EBITDA. In many cases, these aren’t necessarily the startup tech names that can be very speculative. In general, valuations can be lower if you’re focused on cash flows instead of growth. With private equity, you’re usually working with lagging data, so there’s some subjectivity in how companies are valued.

In terms of the current economy, McCourt says that it’s going to be a challenging environment for businesses, private equity or not. The impact so far has been fairly marginal, but private equity companies are typically among the first to cut costs if conditions start worsening. Given that, there hasn’t been a meaningful impact on valuations, but that could still be coming. Transaction volume has come down a lot. When rates move higher, assets are priced lower. It just depends on how far they could fall.

McCourt says that one of the biggest risks in this asset class is execution risk, but they’ve been more or less solved in the past decade. If you get execution wrong, it can be painful. There’s also diversification risk. If you have just a few private names, it can be highly volatile. You have to be diversified across vintage years. Valuations and forward-looking returns differ depending on the year. There’s also liquidity risk. You don’t want to be in a position to sell where it requires you to take a big haircut.

The secondary market has become its own ecosystem. Some investors transact billions of dollars every year. Some will use that to buy at a discount whenever they’re available. Some are looking to sell in order to get portfolio allocations back down to target. McCourt and Bain note that advisors shouldn’t invest in any new asset class until you understand it and you can make your clients feel comfortable with it.

Other takeaways:

  • Private equity can be differentiated between “buyouts” and “venture”. Buyouts tend to focus on cash flow positive companies. Venture involves valuing a business that has yet to generate revenue or cash flow.
  • Bain notes that Fidelity recommends approximately 8% of a portfolio should be in private equity. At Primark, they usually maintain a 10% position in cash & marketable securities to remain flexible. In his fund, you’ll immediately be diversified across all of these risk factors.

You can watch a replay of this virtual happy hour on our YouTube channel here. While there, subscribe to our channel to stay up to date on our latest content.

Disclosure

All investments involve risk, including possible loss of principal.

The material provided here is for informational purposes only and should not be considered an individualized recommendation or personalized investment advice. The investment strategies mentioned here may not be suitable for everyone. Each investor needs to review an investment strategy for his or her own particular situation before making any investment decision.

All expressions of opinion are subject to change without notice in reaction to shifting market conditions. Data contained herein from third party providers is obtained from what are considered reliable sources. However, its accuracy, completeness or reliability cannot be guaranteed.

Examples provided are for illustrative purposes only and not intended to be reflective of results you can expect to achieve.

The value of investments and the income from them can go down as well as up and investors may not get back the amounts originally invested, and can be affected by changes in interest rates, in exchange rates, general market conditions, political, social and economic developments and other variable factors. Investment involves risks including but not limited to, possible delays in payments and loss of income or capital. Neither Toroso nor any of its affiliates guarantees any rate of return or the return of capital invested. This commentary material is available for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security and nothing herein should be construed as such. All investment strategies and investments involve risk of loss, including the possible loss of all amounts invested, and nothing herein should be construed as a guarantee of any specific outcome or profit.  While we have gathered the information presented herein from sources that we believe to be reliable, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information presented and the information presented should not be relied upon as such. Any opinions expressed herein are our opinions and are current only as of the date of distribution, and are subject to change without notice. We disclaim any obligation to provide revised opinions in the event of changed circumstances.

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Get Think Tanked with Tyler Bain

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