- Remember last summer's private-equity legal settlements which ensnared sector names like Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG), Blackstone (NYSE:BX), KKR, and the P-E arm of Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) for colluding to keep a lid on the prices of buyout targets? Needless to say, management didn't bear the burden of the settlement penalties, but neither did the shareholders. In the case of Carlyle at least, the $115M fine was shouldered by the investors in one of its buyout funds.
- Those investors include state and city workers and retirees from across the country, and chances are they were unaware they were responsible for these costs due to the highly secretive nature of the agreements made between P-E and the pension funds which invest in them.
- Disclosure "would cause substantial competitive harm," says a Carlyle spokesman. “This is an overreach on Carlyle’s part, and frankly it violates the spirit of the indemnification clause of our contract,” says NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer, who oversees three city pension funds invested in that particular Carlyle vehicle.
- Private-equity firms now manage $3.5T in assets, and pension funds have been among the more willing investors, with 10% of their assets - or $260B - in P-E. Yet the terms of their deals - including what they're paying to take part - are hidden from view despite open-records laws demanding just the opposite.
- “Hundreds of billions of public pension dollars have essentially been moved into secrecy accounts,” says former SEC lawyer Edward Siedle. "It’s very damning legal boilerplate that sums up the fact that they are the highest-risk, highest-fee products ever devised by Wall Street.”
- ETFs: PSP, PEX