TPG Capital

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:

Founding

The Texas Pacific Group, as it was originally known, 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 William S. Price III, who was Vice President of Strategic Planning and Business Development for GE Capital, to complete the buyout of Continental Airlines. At the time, TPG was virtually alone in its conviction that there was an investment opportunity with the airline. The plan included bringing in a new management team, improving aircraft utilization and focusing on lucrative routes. By 1998, TPG had generated an annual internal rate of return of 55% on its investment.

Texas Pacific Group in the late 1990s

In 1997, TPG completed fundraising for its second private equity fund, with over $2.5 billion of investor commitments. 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.

TPG's most notable 1997 investment was its takeover of J. Crew. TPG acquired an 88% stake in the retailer for approximately $500 million, however the investment struggled due to the relatively high purchase price paid relative to the company's earnings. The company was able to complete a turnaround beginning in 2002 and complete an initial public offering in 2006.

The following year, in 1998, TPG led an investor group in 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. The company completed a buyback of the TPG's PIPE convertible in 2000 and would ultimately be acquired by UnitedHealth Group in 2004.

As the decade came to a close, TPG was once again fundraising, for its third private equity fund. This time, however TPG was raising not only a new buyout fund, but also a new fund, T3 Partners that would invest alongside the main fund in technology oriented investments. In 1999, TPG invested in Piaggio S.p.A, Bally International (including Bally Shoe), and ON Semiconductor.

TPG has also become recognized for its dedicated operations group that has become a major part of the process from investment to sale in many of their portfolio companies. The group is led by Dick Boyce and involves itself in tricky turnaround situations, operations improvement and other tasks that help create value in the company. Other major private equity firms have begun to develop operations group as well, attempting to recreate the model at TPG but most have had trouble creating as expansive a program.

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 more than doubled 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.

That same year, in 2000, TPG completed the controversial acquisition of Gemplus SA, one of the leading smart card manufacturers. 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 the third largest silicon-wafer maker MEMC Electronic Materials.

In July 2002, TPG, together with Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, announced the high-profile $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, who controlled approximately 92% of Burger King restaurants at the time of the transaction. Under its new owners, Burger King underwent a major 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 March 10, 2005.Oregon Public Utility Commission (March 10, 2005). "ORDER NO. 05-114" (PDF). Retrieved February 1, 2008. 

TPG ventured into the film 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, which was announced in September 2004, was completed in early 2005.

Also in 2005, TPG was one of seven private equity firms 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. Also, at the time of its announcement, SunGard would be the largest buyout of a technology company in history, a distinction it would cede to the buyout of Freescale Semiconductor. The SunGard transaction is also notable in the number of firms involved in the transaction, the largest club deal completed to that point. 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 and the buyout boom was entering full swing, TPG co-founder Bill Price announced that he would scale back his work at the firm to focus on personal pursuits including his holdings in wine vineyards.

On December 1, 2006, it was announced TPG and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts had been exploring the possibility of a record $100 billion leveraged buyout of the second-largest retailer in the U.S. Home Depot. Although this massive buyout was never actually completed, TPG was a leading investor during the 2006-2008 buyout boom, completing some of the largest transactions in this period.

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.

On March 12, 2010, Gretchen Morgensen 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 last year. Morgensen raises some interesting 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

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 (now called TES Global, publishers of TES magazine) from Charterhouse Group for a fee of around $600 million.

The Financial Times reported in February 2014 that TPG co-founder David Bonderman was "contemplating" an initial public offering for the private equity group.

TPG and movie producer Robert Simonds, Jr., announced in March 2014 that they had entered a partnership with China's Hony Capital to produce as many as ten "star-driven" films a year, with mid-range budgets (on the order of $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 (group) agreed to a £303.7 million takeover by TPG.

The company is considered a newcomer to the real-estate investment arena. In the first half of 2014, it 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 £200m.

Newbridge Capital

In 1994, TPG, Blum Capital and ACON Investments created Newbridge Capital, a joint-venture to invest in emerging markets, particularly Asia and later Latin America. At its peak, Newbridge managed over $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 and most notable private equity transactions in Asia including:

In the early 2000s, TPG assumed full ownership and control over 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