TPG Capital


TPG Capital, previously known as Texas Pacific Group, is an American investment company. The private equity firm is focused on leveraged buyouts and growth capital. TPG manages investment funds in growth capital, venture capital, public equity, and debt investments. The firm invests in a range of industries including consumer/retail, media and telecommunications, industrials, technology, travel, leisure, and health care.
The firm was founded in 1992 by David Bonderman, James Coulter, and William S. Price III and has raised $50 billion of investor commitments across more than 18 private equity funds.
TPG is headquartered in San Francisco, California. The company has additional offices in Europe, Asia, Australia and other parts of North America.

Private equity funds

TPG has historically relied primarily on private equity funds, pools of committed capital from pension funds, insurance companies, endowments, fund of funds, high-net-worth individuals, sovereign wealth funds, and from other institutional investors. As of the end of 2008, TPG had completed fundraising for over 20 funds with total investor commitments of over $50 billion.
The firm manages investment funds in a number of distinct strategies, including:
Source: Preqin

History and notable investments

Founding

Texas Pacific Group, later TPG Capital, was founded in 1992 by David Bonderman, James Coulter and William S. Price III. Prior to founding TPG, Bonderman and Coulter had worked for Robert M. Bass, making leveraged buyout investments during the 1980s.
In 1993, Coulter and Bonderman partnered with GE Capital vice president of strategic planning and business development William S. Price III to complete the buyout of Continental Airlines. The plan included bringing in a new management team, improving aircraft utilization and focusing on lucrative routes.

Texas Pacific Group in the late 1990s

In June 1996, TPG acquired the AT&T Paradyne unit, a multimedia communications business, from Lucent Technologies for $175 million. Also in 1996, TPG invested in Beringer Wine, Ducati Motorcycles and Del Monte Foods.
In 1997, TPG raised over $2.5 billion for its second private equity fund. TPG's most notable investment that year was its takeover of the retailer J. Crew, acquiring an 88% stake for approximately $500 million; the investment struggled due to the high purchase price paid relative to the company's earnings. The company was able to complete a turnaround, beginning in 2002, and to complete an IPO in 2006.
In 1998, TPG led a minority investment in Oxford Health Plans. TPG and its co-investors invested $350 million in a convertible preferred stock that can be converted into 22.1% of Oxford shareholding. The company completed a buyback of TPG's PIPE convertible in 2000, which would ultimately be acquired by UnitedHealth Group, in 2004.
In 1999, TPG invested in Piaggio S.p.A, Bally International, and ON Semiconductor. T3 Partners was started in 2001 to invest alongside the main fund in technology-oriented investments.

Texas Pacific Group in the early 2000s

In 2000 TPG and Leonard Green & Partners invested $200 million to acquire Petco, the pet supplies retailer as part of a $600 million buyout. Within two years they sold most of it in a public offering that valued the company at $1 billion. Petco’s market value greatly increased by the end of 2004 and the firms would ultimately realize a gain of $1.2 billion. Then, in 2006, the private equity firms took Petco private again for $1.68 billion.
In 2000, TPG completed the controversial acquisition of Gemplus SA, a smart card manufacturer. TPG won a struggle with the company's founder, Marc Lassus, for control of the company. Also in 2000, TPG completed an investment in Seagate Technology.
In 2001, TPG acquired Telenor Media, a Norwegian phone-directory company, for $660 million, and shortly thereafter acquired a controlling interest in silicon-wafer maker MEMC Electronic Materials.
In July 2002, TPG, together with Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, announced the $2.3 billion leveraged buyout of Burger King from Diageo. However, in November the original transaction collapsed, when Burger King failed to meet certain performance targets. In December 2002, TPG and its co-investors agreed on a reduced $1.5 billion purchase price for the investment. The TPG consortium had support from Burger King's franchisees, which controlled approximately 92% of Burger King restaurants at the time of the transaction. Under its new owners, Burger King underwent a brand overhaul including the use of The Burger King character in advertising. In February 2006, Burger King announced plans for an initial public offering.
In November 2003, TPG provided a proposal to buy Portland General Electric from Enron. However, concerns about debt and local politics led to Oregon's Public Utilities Commission regulators to deny permission for the purchase on March 10, 2005.
TPG entered the film production business in late 2004, in the major leveraged buyout of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. A consortium led by TPG and Sony completed the $4.81 billion buyout of the film studio. The consortium also included media-focused firms Providence Equity Partners and Quadrangle Group, as well as DLJ Merchant Banking Partners. The transaction was announced in September 2004, and completed in early 2005.
Also in 2005, TPG was involved in the buyout of SunGard in a transaction valued at $11.3 billion. TPG's partners in the acquisition were Silver Lake Partners, Bain Capital, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Providence Equity Partners, and Blackstone Group. This represented the largest leveraged buyout completed since the takeover of RJR Nabisco at the end of the 1980s leveraged buyout boom. At the time of its announcement, SunGard would be the largest buyout of a technology company in history, a distinction later ceded to the buyout of Freescale Semiconductor. The involvement of seven firms in the consortium was criticized by investors in private equity who considered cross-holdings among firms to be generally unattractive.
On 15 May 2006, Smurfit-Stone reported the definitive sale for $1.04 billion in cash of its consumer packaging division to the Texas Pacific Group.

TPG and 2006–2007 buyout boom

In early 2006, as TPG was completing fundraising for its fifth private equity fund, co-founder Bill Price announced that he would reduce his work at the firm.
On December 1, 2006, it was announced TPG and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts had been exploring the possibility of a $100 billion leveraged buyout of Home Depot.
InvestmentYearCompany descriptionRef.
Neiman Marcus2005TPG, together with Warburg Pincus, acquired Neiman Marcus Group, owner of luxury retailers Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman, in a $5.1 billion buyout in May 2005.
Freescale Semiconductor2006TPG, together with The Blackstone Group, The Carlyle Group and Permira, completed the $17.6 billion takeover of the semiconductor company. At the time of its announcement, Freescale would be the largest leveraged buyout of a technology company ever, surpassing the 2005 buyout of SunGard.
Harrah's Entertainment2006On December 19, 2006, TPG and Apollo Management announced an agreement to acquire the gaming company for $27.4 billion, including the assumption of existing debt.
Sabre Holdings2006TPG and Silver Lake Partners announced a deal to buy Sabre Holdings, which operates Travelocity, Sabre Travel Network and Sabre Airline Solutions, for approximately $4.3 billion in cash, plus the assumption of $550 million in debt. Earlier in the year, Blackstone acquired Sabre's chief competitor Travelport.
Univision Communications2006A consortium of TPG, Madison Dearborn Partners, Providence Equity Partners, Thomas H. Lee Partners and Haim Saban acquired The Spanish-language broadcaster on March 12, 2006 in a $13.7 billion leveraged buyout. The buyout left the company with a debt level of 12 times its annual cash flow.
Alltel2007TPG and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners announced the acquisition of Alltel Wireless in a $27 billion buyout in May 2007. The transaction was approved by the Federal Communications Commission and closed on November 16, 2007. However just over six months later, on June 5, 2008, TPG and Goldman agreed to sell Alltel to Verizon for slightly more than it had paid for the company amidst a deteriorating economic outlook.
Avaya2007TPG and Silver Lake Partners completed an $8.2 billion leveraged buyout of the enterprise telephony and call center technology company that was formerly a unit of Lucent Technologies.
Biomet2007TPG, The Blackstone Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners acquired the medical devices company for $11.6 billion.
First Data2007TPG and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts completed the $29 billion buyout of the credit and debit card payment processor and former parent of Western Union. Michael Capellas, previously the CEO of MCI Communications and Compaq was named CEO of the privately held company.
Midwest Air Group2007On August 12, 2007 Agreed to purchase Midwest Air Group and its subsidiaries including Midwest Airlines ending the hostile takeover attempt by AirTran Airways. Northwest Airlines also invested in the transaction alongside TPG as a passive equity co-investor. On August 14, 2007 Increased its offer to purchase Midwest after a late attempt by Airtran to increase its bid for Midwest. The purchase price was $452 million. Midwest lost money during TPG's ownership having to accept a loan from Republic Airways Holdings to avoid bankruptcy. Republic took over Midwest's fleet. Eventually TPG sold the company to Republic for $31 million.
Surgical Care Affiliates2007In June 2007, TPG completed the carveout of HealthSouth Corporation's ambulatory surgery business for $920 million.
Energy Future Holdings 2007An investor group, led by TPG and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, and together with Goldman Sachs Capital Partners completed the $44.37 billion buyout of the regulated utility and power producer The investor group had to work closely with ERCOT regulators to gain approval of the transaction but had significant experience with the regulators from their earlier buyout of Texas Genco. TXU is the largest buyout in history, and retained this distinction when the announced buyout of BCE failed to close in December 2008. The deal is also notable for a drastic change in environmental policy for the energy giant, in terms of its carbon emissions from coal power plants and funding alternative energy. On April 29, 2014 Energy Future filed for bankruptcy protection under Title 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.

In early 2007, the firm, officially changed its name to TPG Capital, rebranding all of its funds across different geographies. The firm's Asian funds, which had historically been managed by TPG Newbridge, a joint venture with Blum Capital.

TPG and the credit crisis

On April 7, 2008, TPG led a $7 billion investment in Washington Mutual. On September 25, 2008, Washington Mutual was taken over by the U.S. government, costing TPG a 1.35 Billion dollar investment. It has been called by some analysts "the worst deal in private equity history."
On March 12, 2010, Gretchen Morgenson, in The New York Times, discussed TPG's role as a private equity investor in Greek mobile phone operator WIND Hellas, formerly TIM Hellas, which filed for bankruptcy protection late 2009. Morgenson raised questions about the circumstances in which TPG and fellow private equity investors Apax Partners of London redeemed a significant quantity of "convertible preferred equity certificates" held by them to repay their own "deeply subordinated shareholder loans" during a period in which a significant and apparently unexplained spike occurred in the market value of the certificates.

Post-recession activity (2010-2017)

On June 10, 2010, TPG announced an acquisition of Vertafore, a provider of software for the insurance industry, for $1.4 billion.
On July 13, 2011, affiliates of TPG Capital acquired PRIMEDIA for approximately $525 million, or $7.10 per share in cash. TPG and fellow private equity firm Apollo Global Management are set to IPO their stake in Norwegian Cruise Lines in 2013.
In July 2013, TPG announced it would buy global education publisher TSL Education, later TES Global, publishers of TES magazine) from Charterhouse Group, for a fee of around $600 million.
The Financial Times reported, in February 2014, TPG considered issuing an IPO, deciding, in March 2017, to remain private.
TPG and movie producer Robert Simonds, Jr., announced in March 2014 that they had entered a partnership with China's Hony Capital to produce up to 10 "star-driven" films a year, with mid-range budgets of about $40 million per film.
In April 2014, it was announced that TPG had invested £200 million in Victoria Plumb after buying a majority stake. In November 2014, Prezzo Holdings agreed to a £303.7 million takeover by TPG.
In the first half of 2014, the company started to raise funds for a real-estate specific fund. It had a goal of $1.5 billion to $2 billion. By October 2015, the company had exceeded its goal, raising more than $2 billion.
In 2016, TPG Growth, the growth equity and smaller buyout investment arm of TPG Capital, acquired technology staffing firm Frank Recruitment Group in a deal that valued the company at £200 million.
In January 2017 TPG acquired a majority of A&O Hotels and Hostels, Europe's biggest privately owned hostel platform, based in Germany.
On January 25, 2017, TPG announced that after a nearly two-year search, it had hired Bradford Berenson as its general counsel. Berenson had been vice president and senior counsel for litigation and legal policy for General Electric, where he was "responsible for litigation, government and internal investigations, compliance, and legal policy worldwide." From 2001 to 2003, Bereson served as Associate White House Counsel to President George W. Bush.
In 2017, Bonderman left the board of Uber "after he made a sexist comment in response to Arianna Huffington at an Uber meeting". In July 2017, Ajay Kanwal and Naveen Chopra joined TPG as senior advisors.
In September 2017, TPG Capital acquired majority stake in Australia's largest contract research organization, Novotech Clinical Research. In November 2017, TPG Capital acquired Mendocino Farms; former Yard House CEO Harald Herrmann was appointed as its CEO.
In 2018, Manipal Hospitals and TPG Capital acquired Fortis Healthcare as part of a deal for Rs 3900 crore.

Newbridge Capital

In 1994, TPG, Blum Capital and ACON Investments created Newbridge Capital, a joint-venture to invest in emerging markets, particularly in Asia and, later, in Latin America. At its peak, Newbridge managed over USD $3.2 billion. Newbridge was headquartered alongside TPG in Fort Worth and San Francisco, with investment offices across the Asia-Pacific region in Hong Kong, Melbourne, Mumbai, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, and Tokyo. In 1995, Newbridge also ventured into Latin America, raising a $300 million fund and then a follow-up $150 million fund in 1996. After its debut funds in the mid-1990s, Newbridge did not continue to focus on Latin America.
Since its founding, Newbridge developed a specialization in five broad industry groups: financial services, technology and telecom, healthcare, consumer, and industrials. Newbridge was involved in a number of the largest private equity transactions in Asia, including:
In the early 2000s, TPG assumed full ownership of the Newbridge joint venture, renaming the firm TPG Newbridge. At the beginning of 2007, when the firm officially changed its name from Texas Pacific Group to TPG Capital, TPG Newbridge's Asian funds were also rebranded as the TPG Asia Funds.
TPG remained active in Asia in 2008. On August 4, TPG, along with Global Infrastructure Partners, offered to buy Asciano Limited for AUD 2.9 billion in an unsuccessful attempt to complete an unsolicited takeover. On October 31, 2008, TPG completed the purchase of a 35% interest in P.T. Bumi Resources, from its previous owner Bakrie & Brothers, Indonesia, for $1.3 billion.

Notable employees