- “I don’t know why Warren Buffett should be the only person who can have a 15-year, 14% sort of return horizon,” says Blackstone's (BX -0.3%) Joe Baratta, head of private-equity at the firm.
- Blackstone typically cashes out of deals relatively quickly and targets lower returns, but it is exploring ways of partnering with investors for longer-term deals outside of its investment funds, with potentially higher returns (it's not the only P-E firm doing so).
- TPG co-founder Jim Coulter says the P-E industry is in a period of "titanic shifts," and the share of companies purchased through fund structures is likely to fall.
- One model is that of 3G Capital's $23B purchase of Heinz in which the P-E player didn't use a fund, and invited Berkshire as a partner. The two are under no time pressure to sell.
- "It opens up a whole universe of opportunities that we're not currently accessing," says Blackstone's Baratta.