Silver Lake Banks New $20 Billion
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Silver Lake Banks New $20 Billion

Silver Lake, an active investor in the technology sector, has closed its latest fund, Silver Lake Partners VI LP, with $20 billion of capital. The new fund reached its hard cap for limited partner capital commitments and includes more than $500 million of commitments from its general partner.

Investors in Silver Lake VI include public and corporate pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, endowments, foundations, funds of funds, family offices, and individual investors across North America, South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Silver Lake invests in technology and technology-enabled industries with a specific interest in software, cloud computing, transaction processing, IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, and e-commerce – all within the semiconductor, travel, transportation, healthcare, financial services and media sectors.

“With more than two decades of experience singularly focused on technology investing, Silver Lake is firing on all cylinders as we continue to execute our strategy of helping to build and grow great companies at a time of accelerating digital transformation across the globe,” said co-chief executive officers Egon Durban and Greg Mondre in a released statement. “We are deeply grateful to the portfolio company management teams who invite us in to work with them as the true heroes of the Silver Lake story, and to the limited partners who have confidence in our ability to create exceptional long-term value in a socially responsible manner by helping those companies grow and drive innovation for the benefit of all stakeholders.”

The close of Silver Lake’s new fund follows the September 2020 buy of a minority interest in the firm by Mubadala, a sovereign wealth fund of the United Arab Emirates. This equity interest was acquired from Dyal Capital Partners – a unit of Neuberger Berman – through a secondary transaction. Dyal acquired its non-voting equity interest of less than 10% in Silver Lake in 2016 and retains approximately half of its original investment.

Mubadala and Silverlake also agreed in September 2020 to partner on a 25-year strategy to invest in early to later-stage opportunities in the technology sector. This strategy is funded by a $2 billion capital commitment from Mubadala which made its first technology investment in 2007 when it acquired an equity interest in chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices.

“We are very pleased with the response we have received across the board from limited partners, especially given the current environment, which we believe validates Silver Lake’s strategic discipline, deep technology expertise, and intensive focus on growth,” said Susannah Carrier, a managing director at Silver Lake. “We are grateful to our returning and new investors for entrusting Silver Lake with their capital as we continue to cultivate a culture of excellence and an alignment of interests to generate exceptional performance.”

Silver Lake had an active 2020 with new investments in companies including Twitter, Airbnb, Expedia, Jio Platforms, and Reliance Retail; closed partial or full exits from Alibaba, NortonLifelock, Ancestry and Credit Karma; and took several companies public including GoodRx and Unity Technologies.

Silver Lake partnered with Apollo Global Management in April 2020 to invest $1.2 billion of preferred stock in publicly traded Expedia Group (NASDAQ: EXPE), an online travel company with four business segments: Core Online Travel Agencies, Trivago (hotel and lodging), Vrbo (Vacation Rentals by Owner), and Egencia (business travel).

In addition to these segments, other company-owned brands include Orbitz, Travelocity, CheapTickets, Hotwire, Hotels.com, and CarRentals.com. Last year, Expedia had revenues of $12.1 billion and EBITDA of $1.9 billion.

Silver Lake has over 100 investment professionals located in Silicon Valley, New York, London, and Hong Kong and has $75 billion in assets under management and committed capital.

© 2021 Private Equity Professional | January 15, 2021

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