Scott Sperling of THL Partners spoke on CNBC this morning about private equity. Host Joe Kernen said Sperling is doing "God's work." Sperling refused that characterization.
THL Partners was founded by Thomas H. Lee in 1974. NYT called Thomas. H Lee "an aggressive Boston private equity firm" in a February 2023 story on Mr. Lee's death.
Mr. Lee died on Thursday in New York City at age 78. The city medical examiner said on Friday that the cause was suicide with a firearm.
The story noted:
If a side effect was that the companies often floundered later under the debt that Mr. Lee and his colleagues loaded on them, the investors were long gone by the time of those reckonings.
Mr. Lee left Thomas H. Lee Partners in 2006 amid reported disagreements with its executives, and the company changed its name to THL Partners.
Lee then formed Lee Equity Partners, a different private equity underwriter (PEU).
NYPo reported:
"You know, if you picked somebody [to commit suicide], I would have never picked him. He was very positive, very friendly, very nice guy.”
A source in private equity with ties to Lee’s business said, “It’s interesting that he [killed himself] at his firm.
“It looks like a big ‘f–k you’ to his partners,” the source claimed.
At the time of his death, Lee Equity Partners had spent a year raising a new fund.
I imaging Mr. Sperling is very familiar with Lee's tragic ending and the significant conflict between the founder and executives in 2006.
Kernen's religious fervor for the PEU boys is widely shared. Even America's political class caters to PEUs. Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.
Whatever torment Mr. Lee experienced occurred on this earthly plane. Lee was even reported to be the inspiration for "Wall Street" character Gordon Gekko who spoke the famous line "Greed is good." In God's world it is one of the seven deadly sins.
I expect any PEU is a petri dish for gluttony, lust, envy, greed, wrath, and pride. Sloth may be the one exception.
I wouldn't ever say the greed and leverage boys are doing God's work. I certainly wouldn't expect a longtime associate of Thomas H. Lee to characterize his firm in this manner. Scott Sperling gets credit for not agreeing with such a ridiculous assertion.
