A short note on why we expanded our front-end sectors to four. What the term means to us, what it does not, and what kinds of deals it is meant to catch.
For most of the last year we described what members get access to as three categories: real estate, private equity, and funds. As of this quarter the public site reads four: real estate, private equity, funds, and special situations. Same network, same screen, slightly wider net. A short note on why.
It is the category we use for opportunities that do not fit a clean fund-or-direct shape and that show up because something unusual has happened. A forced seller. A counterparty event. A regulatory change. A secondary in an existing vehicle where an LP needs liquidity. The common thread is dislocation, the source of the return is the dislocation itself, and the operator’s job is to underwrite the unusual.
Three things. It does not mean high-leverage trades on public markets. It does not mean structured products that pay yield by selling tail risk. It does not mean anything that hangs on a single binary catalyst we cannot influence. If the only reason a deal works is a price move we cannot underwrite, we are not the right home for it.
Two reasons. First, we are seeing more of these on the desk. Rate moves have produced more forced sellers and more secondaries than at any point in our history as a network. Second, members have asked for it. The most common request after deal flow updates is, in plain language: what about the stuff that does not fit. Adding the category to the public site is just an acknowledgement of work we were already doing.
The screen is unchanged. The verdict process is unchanged. The materials still need to clear the same bar. The only difference is that some of what clears, this year, will not look like a real estate fund or a private equity co-invest. It will look like an opportunity that exists because of dislocation. That is a useful thing to have a column for.
New deals, key insights, and updates that matter. No clutter. Just what's useful.