00:00But first, we want to catch up a little bit with some of the conversations that we had
00:03at the Milken Conference that just concluded here in Los Angeles. And that includes with
00:07the co-CEO of GTCR, Colin Roche, who talked about the private equity landscape and his
00:12firm's multi-billion dollar exit from WorldPay. I think it's evidence that if you do things the
00:19right way, this business model can work. And for a number of years, so much money flew into our
00:26asset class and drove up prices. And many competitors didn't focus so much on creating
00:32value with the business as opposed to buying and selling businesses because it was a rising
00:37price environment. And WorldPay was one where we made very substantial changes to the business
00:42to make it perform better. We created value and then we were able to achieve an exit based
00:47on that better performance. We created a lot of value. We created a lot of value. But in the same
00:51year, we exited Assured, an insurance broker that we sold to Gallagher for about $13 billion.
00:57So it's possible there's one or two announcements in the last week in Europe. It can happen. But
01:03are you creating value? Do you have a value creation plan? Are you executing upon it? And
01:07we have to pay fair prices when we buy. We can't overpay because then that's always a headwind
01:13against getting liquidity. The other side of it is also carrying values. Our industry, as
01:18you know, there's some businesses, because people bought them in another era, the carrying values
01:24are just too high. And that can be an impediment. But I think we're seeing that change, not as
01:29quickly as maybe we'd like, but it's adjusting and that bodes well. And I ask that because when
01:35you look at what you did with WorldPay, I mean, there are a lot of questions as to whether that
01:38was replicable, you know, and whether you are replicating that inside your portfolio.
01:43Yeah. And that was I mean, that was a larger example. But I would say that was a archetypal
01:49GTCR investment where we are backing an executive and team to make material changes to a business
01:56so that it can perform better. And then we realize value at a higher multiple based on that being a
02:02better business. We think that there's very there's there's many different strategies in private equity,
02:07but you can only succeed if you have a strategy that has consistency of proving results. Yeah.
02:13For us, it's operational and strategic change. For others, it might be something different.
02:17We think it works. It's just our industry just got overheated where people overpaid and it was hard to
02:22drive returns that way. Is the environment better now?
02:26Yeah. We like this environment a lot. We'd say it's fair. Now, obviously, there's there's some
02:30overhangs and atmospherics around macro and geopolitical. But fundamentally, risk is being
02:36priced in a much more rational way. And if that's the case, if we can pay a fair price, pay
02:42a fair
02:42price to a seller, and then we can improve the business and drive a gain and then deliver a better
02:47business to a buyer that then prospers with it, we've delivered value and we can create a return.
02:52Sure. Well, I am curious, then. I mean, I mean, you got like 50 billion dollars in assets under
02:57management. Are you being active right now in this environment? You are deploying.
03:02Yeah. Last year was a big year for us. It was a bigger liquidity year than investing year,
03:06but it was also a big investing year. The first quarter this year was slow. And I think a bunch
03:12of these overhangs that we're experiencing put a chill on deal volumes that seems to be dissipating.
03:19People seem to be coming to terms with some of the risks in the environment. But our approach is we
03:26want to be buyers when other people are running away. Those are the better times. The better times
03:30to be a buyer are when others are scared. Now, you want to be cognizant of the risks.
03:34Yeah. But it's a good time to be an investor in private equity.
03:41And our thanks to Colin Rose. She is the co-CEO and managing director over at GTCR.
03:46Now, coming up, we have a packed lineup in store for you today, live from Double Line HQ in LA.
03:53We'll see you next time.
03:53Bye.
03:53Bye.
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