Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Alaska Dispatch News Promotes Publisher's Pt Capital

What news source hosts a seventeen page brochure for an Arctic focused private equity firm?  Alaska Dispatch News does for Pt Capital.  ADN Owner/Publisher Alice Rogoff sits on Pt Capital's Advisory Board.

An ADN search on Pt Capital produced thirteen articles in addition to the investment brochure  The most recent piece from November 2015 promoted Pt Capital's first PEU fund offering:

Pt Capital, an Anchorage-based private equity firm investing exclusively in four Arctic countries, announced this week that it attracted more than $125 million to its inaugural fund.

Pt Arctic Fund I requires a minimum investment of $10 million and promises a compounded annual return of at least 20 percent, according to its brochure, filed in November with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 
ADN disclosed: 

Alaska Dispatch News publisher Alice Rogoff is a senior adviser for Pt Capital and holds founding stock in the parent company. 

The fund is bullish on the idea that a warming Arctic will eventually open up a wealth of development opportunities in the oil, gas and shipping sectors in the next two to three decades.
Rogoff's ADN and Pt Capital held an Arctic Circle Summit on Alaskan Shipping and Ports the week before President Obama dined at Alice Rogoff's home.

The purpose of the meeting was to build partnerships to develop safe and reliable shipping through the Alaskan Arctic. These partnerships will be necessary to finance needed ports of refuge, search and rescue equipment, transshipment facilities and icebreakers. 
On the morning of Day 1 Rogoff opened with:

I want to take one quick thank you to our sponsors.... Last but not least I want to say a quick word about Pt Capital...  For those of you who don't know Pt Capital is a brand new private equity firm in Alaska.  Well, I'm not sure what brand new means, but new on the scene and they are really borne out of our Arctic conferences.  It's one of the most tangible things that we've done.  We'll have boots on the ground in the Arctic.  They're dedicated to Alaska and the Arctic.  It's where their investment dollars will go.
Rogoff is Senior Advisor and part owner of Pt Capital via her founders' stock.  She owns the Alaskan Dispatch News, the largest newspaper in Alaska.  Rogoff shamelessly promoted both as the eyes of the world turned to Alaska and President Obama's visit.  

Today's synergistic business world is likely the death knell of investigative journalism. Alaska could be a role model for the country in this light.

Update 8-15-19:  It turns out daughter Gabrielle Rubenstein is also a co-founder of Pt Capital in 2013.  Add another layer of conflict for when Rogoff was publisher