Blackstone said to be in talks for minority stake in FTV Capital

Roman Tiraspolsky

• Private equity giant Blackstone (NYSE:BX) is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire a small stake in FTV Capital, a growth-equity investment firm.
• Last year, FTV raised its seventh and largest fund at $2.3B in capital commitments with plans to invest in high-growth companies across the enterprise technology, financial services, and payments industries.
• The deal hasn't been finalized and could still fall apart, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.
• Typically, the San Francisco-based firm makes investments ranging from $30M to $200M to help the target company accelerate growth. With the close of FTV VII, the company has raised $6.2B, it said in March 2022.
• FTV Capital and Blackstone (BX) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
• Large private equity firms have been increasing their investments in alternative asset managers that are seeking to boost liquidity. For example, In October, funds managed by Apollo Global Management (APO) acquired an ~5% equity interest in Diameter, a New York-based alternative asset manager focused on global credit markets.

Comments

[user1416]

Why invest in venture capital now? This is probably one of the worst environments for bringing emerging growth startups to market.

I much prefer Blackstone's long lived assets that can ride out market cycles while kicking out passive cash flow.

[Scott Sacknoff]

@user1416 But if you consider a VC investment is typically held for 3-5 years before an exit, then investments now are at lower valuations and will be ready for sale the next time the market cycle is headed upward.

[user1416]

@Scott Sacknoff It's uphill for funding rounds in this environment and a lot of fintec has lost its luster.

There must be better things for Blackstone to spend their money on.