Financial Services

The financial services sector remains a cornerstone of the global economy, offering institutional investors, financial advisors, and wealth managers a distinctive combination of structural resilience and high-growth potential. We believe this sector connects investors with durable opportunities driven by the constant evolution of global markets.

For more than a decade, our Global Private Equity investment team has invested in financial services companies, growing both the depth and breadth of our expertise in the sector. Drawing strength from our deep industry expertise, we seek to identify companies poised to benefit from significant contributions to the global economy, positioning our strategy as a core component of a diversified, growth-oriented private equity allocation.

Strategy and approach

We’ve developed several differentiated and successful partnerships with global businesses in financial services industry sub-sectors. These include insurance and insurance-related services, business services, asset and wealth management, financial technology, depository institutions, and specialty finance companies.

Our team is highly selective in our partnerships, yet flexible on investment size (from $200 million to more than $2 billion), form (minority or majority), and growth stage. This gives us the opportunity to work with great companies regardless of their size or current capital needs.

Working with our portfolio companies’ executive teams, we seek to drive performance through multiple levers of value creation including international expansion, new-product development, M&A, and strategic positioning strategies. We ground our technology investment strategy in several key themes:

• Increasing affluence and a focus on financial inclusion in emerging economies.
• Strong underlying market tailwinds.
• Increased demand for independent advisory and services firms.
• Enhanced financial and retirement advice driven by near-term demographic shifts.
• A shift to specialized FinTech solutions providers.
• Continued need for innovation within financial businesses.

Our portfolio construction focuses on high-value niches, including:

• Asset & wealth management. Capitalizing on the consolidation and growth of independent advisory firms.
• Insurance & insurance-related services. Investing in carriers and service providers with strong recurring revenue models.
• Financial technology (FinTech). Partnering with specialized solutions providers driving efficiency in payments and banking.
• Business services. Capitalizing on sustained secular tailwinds, such as increasing outsourcing and evolving corporate needs & standards.
• Specialty finance & depository institutions. Identifying undervalued credit and lending platforms.

Value creation

We seek to partner with executive teams to drive performance through multiple levers of value creation. For financial advisors and wealth managers vetting our operational capabilities, our approach includes:

• Strategic M&A. Identifying acquisitions to scale platforms, particularly in fragmented markets like wealth management.
• Digital transformation. Helping traditional financial businesses modernize through new product development and FinTech integration.
• International expansion. Leveraging our global network to take regional leaders into international markets.

Investment themes

Our investment strategy is underpinned by powerful, long-term themes that we believe are reshaping the financial landscape. We focus on identifying companies that benefit from:

• Demographic shifts & retirement. Addressing the enhanced need for financial and retirement advice driven by aging populations and generational wealth transfer.
• The rise of independent advisory. Capitalizing on the increased demand for independent advisory and services firms (RIAs).
• Financial inclusion & affluence. Tapping into increasing affluence in emerging economies.
• Specialized FinTech solutions. The shift away from legacy systems toward agile, specialized technology providers.