Devin Banerjee on Muck Rack

Devin Banerjee

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  • Senior Managing Editor and Head of News Growth, LinkedIn
New York, San Francisco
Covers:  finance, tech, health care
Sr. Managing Editor & Head of News Growth @LinkedIn. Previously @business.

Devin Banerjee’s Journalist Portfolio

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KKR Said to Write Off First Brazil Deal Amid Aceco Legal Battles

KKR Said to Write Off First Brazil Deal Amid Aceco Legal Battles

Bloomberg — On May 11, 2015, Jorge Fergie opened an e-mail from an anonymous sender. Aceco TI, the Brazilian company whose board he led as chairman, had been cooking the books and bribing government officials for years, the sender alleged. For Fergie, the head of Latin America for private equity giant KKR & Co., it was a stunning claim.

Koch Brothers Fill Wall Street's Void in Private Equity Lending

Koch Brothers Fill Wall Street's Void in Private Equity Lending

Bloomberg — Some big corporate buyouts are quietly finding two unusual backers: Charles and David Koch. For the billionaire Kochs, who made their fortune in the energy business, the deals mark a sharp expansion in financing private equity deals. Modeling itself after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Koch Equity, or KED, has the advantage of access to capital from parent Koch Industries Inc.’s considerable balance sheet.

Wealthy Families Have $4 Trillion Up for Grabs

Wealthy Families Have $4 Trillion Up for Grabs

Bloomberg — In December, a half-dozen of some of the richest families in the U.S., from agriculture to beverages, gathered in a conference room on the 10th floor of an office building in Miami. This was not some cabal to rule the world. Instead, for an hour over coffee and bagels they listened to a dealmaker for billionaire brothers J.B. and Tony Pritzker talk about how to buy companies.

Private Equity's Golden Age Wasn't So Golden After All

Private Equity's Golden Age Wasn't So Golden After All

Bloomberg — Henry Kravis called it private equity's golden age. From 2005 to 2007, buyout firms paid fat prices to buy about 20 supersized companies, from Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. to Hertz Global Holdings Inc. Now, a decade later, the results of that debt-fueled spree can be tabulated -- and it's hardly golden.

Wall Street's Big Guns: Why Cerberus Sticks With Its Firearms

Wall Street's Big Guns: Why Cerberus Sticks With Its Firearms

Bloomberg — Way up in a New York high-rise, inside the headquarters of Cerberus Capital Management, Stephen A. Feinberg had reached a sobering conclusion: The guns had to go. It was mid-December 2012, three years ago this week, and 20 children and six adults had just been gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. The weapon had been a Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle -- one of the military-style semiautomatics made by the company that Cerberus and Feinberg, the investment firm's chief executive officer, were quietly building into the nation's largest gun manufacturer.

Airbnb Said Close to Hiring Blackstone's Tosi for CFO Role

Airbnb Said Close to Hiring Blackstone's Tosi for CFO Role

Bloomberg — Airbnb Inc. is close to hiring Blackstone Group LP's Laurence Tosi as chief financial officer of the home-sharing startup, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Bond Firms Struggle With Stocks as Team Leaves Logan

Bond Firms Struggle With Stocks as Team Leaves Logan

Bloomberg — When Fortress Investment Group LLC hired Dave Shell two years ago to start an equities business at its Logan Circle Partners, a traditional bond fund manager, Chief Executive Officer Randy Nardone called it a "natural extension" for the firm. Last week, Nardone told analysts and investors that he decided to shutter the stocks division because it became a "distraction" that made Logan Circle, with $32 billion in assets, unprofitable.

Carlyle Trips Chasing Blackstone in Diversification Push

Carlyle Trips Chasing Blackstone in Diversification Push

Bloomberg — Thirty miles south of London, residents of Tunbridge Wells are disgusted. Their ire is directed at Carlyle Group LP, which with Bellhouse Joseph Ltd. bought a dilapidated movie theater in 2011 and then failed to develop the site. The Washington-based firm’s investors are also frustrated with Carlyle’s international real estate efforts.

Classic Cars, Lean Hogs and Duchamp Art Lead Alternative Investment Ranking

Classic Cars, Lean Hogs and Duchamp Art Lead Alternative Investment Ranking

Bloomberg — "I am a musician, and the monkey is a businessman. He doesn't tell me what to play, and I don't tell him what to do with his money." David Bonderman, co-founder of private-equity firm TPG Capital, is doing his best French accent for the Beverly Hills crowd, parroting a blind organ grinder confronted by Peter Sellers's Inspector Clouseau character in the 1975 film "The Return of the Pink Panther." The audience, gathered in April for the Milken Institute Global Conference, erupts in laughter. So does Leon Black, founder of Apollo Global Management LLC, who is seated next to Bonderman.

Ressler to Become Billionaire God of War on Ares Offering

Ressler to Become Billionaire God of War on Ares Offering

Bloomberg — Ressler, 53, the salt-and-pepper-haired husband of actress Jami Gertz and father of three, will own about 31 percent of the company following the IPO. “He’s had a game plan for a decade,” said Rich Lawson, the CEO of Palo Alto, California-based buyout firm HGGC LLC, which isn’t publicly traded. “He watched closely as other alternative-asset organizations went public and learned from them.”

Property Crushes Hedge Funds in Alternative Markets

Property Crushes Hedge Funds in Alternative Markets

Bloomberg — "Why would anyone invest in the stock market?" Hamilton "Tony" James looked up from his notes and peered out at the audience over the rims of his glasses. The investors seated in the chandelier-adorned meeting room of New York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel had been in their chairs for hours. Yet James paused to let his point sink in. Someone laughed. James, president since 2005 of Blackstone Group LP, was stone-faced.

KKR to Carlyle Target $3.6 Trillion in 401(k)s Accounts

KKR to Carlyle Target $3.6 Trillion in 401(k)s Accounts

Bloomberg — Private-equity firms, the exclusive money managers overseeing $3 trillion worldwide for the wealthiest investors, are discovering a new type of client: ordinary people. Carlyle Group LP, Blackstone Group LP and KKR & Co., which usually open their doors only to clients willing to commit at least $5 million, are lowering that threshold or offering investments directly to individuals, an effort to attract fresh cash amid lackluster fundraising. Their ultimate goal: a slice of the $3.57 trillion Americans have accumulated in their 401(k) retirement plans.

Three Billionaires Join Buffett for Heinz Deal

Three Billionaires Join Buffett for Heinz Deal

Bloomberg — As Warren Buffett puts as much as $13 billion into the purchase of HJ Heinz Co., the world's fourth-richest man is relying on three other billionaires to make the deal work. 3G Capital, an investment firm backed by three Brazilian entrepreneurs including the country's richest man, Jorge Paulo Lemann, will take an equity stake of more than $4 billion, according to people familiar with the deal.

Silver Lake's Ties to Dell Help Firm Land Lead LBO Role

Silver Lake's Ties to Dell Help Firm Land Lead LBO Role

Bloomberg — Michael Dell is extending a lucrative relationship reaching back to the late 1990s with his pick of Silver Lake Management LLC, the largest technology-focused private-equity firm, to pursue a $24.4 billion leveraged buyout of his computer company.

Romney's LBO World Is Boys' Club With Few Top Women

Romney's LBO World Is Boys' Club With Few Top Women

Bloomberg — Rhonda Ryan didn't meet many other women when she broke into the private-equity business 15 years ago. Today, she's still the rare female executive in an industry pushed into the spotlight by the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney, co-founder of buyout firm Bain Capital LLC. "I'll often have meetings with a group of fund managers where I'll be the only female in the room," Ryan, who manages more than $1.3 billion of assets at PineBridge Investments in London, said in a telephone interview.

Demand Soars Past Indian Aviation

Demand Soars Past Indian Aviation

Wall Street Journal — NEW DELHI -- Demand for air travel in India is growing faster than anticipated. But an overloaded infrastructure threatens the ability of airlines and other aviation companies to tap the otherwise promising market.

North's threat greater when seen from afar

North's threat greater when seen from afar

Korea JoongAng Daily — Peter McClatchy remembers the conversation clearly. The 34-year-old New Yorker had just arrived in Seoul for a weeklong conference when his mother called, her voice seemingly flustered. "How is it over there?" he recalls her asking. "Are you safe?"

Trading hagwon for home study

Trading hagwon for home study

Korea JoongAng Daily — In seven weeks, Moon Doh-ju will sit for the Secondary School Admission Test, a crucial step as the eighth-grader attempts to attend a top boarding school in America. While Moon is confident, her mother, Lee Daw-hwa, is a bit anxious. Nearly all of Moon's friends have used Korean tutoring centers, or hagwon, to beef up their test-taking prowess.