Private equity giant TPG Inc. landed on Wall Street with a bang Thursday, raising $835 million for its coffers in the first big IPO of 2022 and logging a 15.3 percent increase in first-day trading.
The San Francisco and Fort Worth, Tex.-based company plans to use 40 percent of the proceeds to buy back stock from existing investors and the rest to support its operations, pursuing new lines of business or new markets.
TPG, which has been an active dealmaker for 30 years and has $109 billion in assets under management, now joins other big private equity companies such as KKR, Blackstone and The Carlyle Group in the public market. The company trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol “TPG” and saw its shares rise $4.50 to $34 during its opening day.
Being public has its perks. TPG now has an easily tradable stock that can be used to compensate executives and corporate leadership, but it also boosts the pressure on the investor to produce results and keep growing.
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That could ultimately lead to more wheeling and dealing.
TPG’s highest-profile fashion deal was its $5.1 billion acquisition of Neiman Marcus with partner Warburg Pincus in 2005. The luxury department store eventually was flipped — to Ares Management and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for $6 billion in 2013. (The legacy debt from two consecutive private equity takeovers was ultimately too much for the department store to bear, prompting a bankruptcy filing in the early days of the pandemic from which it has since emerged).
But that is just a slice of TPG’s work in the consumer space.
The company also previously invested in disruptive beauty brand Beautycounter, E.l.f. Cosmetics, Australian department store Myer and Indian discount merchant Vishal Retail.
TPG’s portfolio includes investments in:
• APM Monaco: A silver jewelry brand founded by Ariane Prette in 1982.
• Campus Activewear: India’s largest casual sports and footwear name.
• BFA Industries: The online makeup subscription service that sends out more than 1.5 million Glam Bags monthly.
• Reliance Retail: The Mumbai, India-based retailer with 27 million square feet of retail space across more than 12,000 stores.
• Rodan + Fields: A skin care brand distributed by independent consultants.
Like other private equity firms, TPG uses its view into the business world, dealmaking experience and network of professionals to chase themes in the market, spotting companies or sectors that are poised for growth, swooping in with an investment and then selling for a premium.
According to the company’s initial public offering registration statement, it has about 912 employees across eight countries keeping tabs on its more than 280 active portfolio companies employing more than 500,000 people.
It works across five “platforms,” which it describes as Capital, Growth, Impact, Real Estate and Market Solutions.
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