When it comes to PE dealmaking, no firm can equal KKR, Blackstone or The Carlyle Group in terms of frequency. Dating back to the start of 2013, those are the only three shops to top 400 completed investments, per the PitchBook Platform. Only five others have even surpassed half that many.
At least one of those five seems to be doing its best to join the industry's highest echelon. In its latest move, New York-based Warburg Pincus has made a majority investment in SCM Insurance Services, a Canadian provider previously owned by TorQuest Partners. TorQuest will retain a minority stake; the firm had been shopping SCM for quite some time, with reports first emerging in 2015 that the business was up for sale with an asking price of around $600 million.
The investment is Warburg Pincus' 33rd private equity transaction in 2017, according to PitchBook data, seventh-most among PE firms headquartered in the US. Assuming Warburg doesn't stop pursuing deals during the final four months of the year, this will mark the fifth straight time it has finished among the top 15 PE firms in terms of deal frequency.
Where has the capital for all those investments been coming from? It's been nearly two years since the firm closed its 12th flagship fund on a hard cap of $12 billion, marking the third time in the past decade Warburg Pincus has raised an 11-figure vehicle—resulting in a mountainous backlog of dry powder. While it's still too early to get a great read on that fund's performance, here's a look at its predecessors via the PitchBook Platform (all data current as of the end of 2Q):
While Warburg Pincus hasn't yet completed any billion-dollar transactions this year, the firm has been active at a slightly lower price range. In June, it completed the purchase of urgent care provider CityMD for a reported $600 million, and in February, Warburg backed the merger of Accelya and Mercator in a €650 million combination of travel services providers.
PitchBook subscribers can view the full data on Warburg Pincus and its recent investments.
Article by Kevin Dowd, PitchBook
