It's a challenge evacuating a building housing 19,000 corporations. Fortunately, Category 3 Hurricane Beryl stayed offshore of the Cayman Islands.
Before the storm approached entities affiliated with The Carlyle Group sold shares in OrthoQuidel, a healthcare diagnostic company. Those entities included a number of Cayman firms.
Carlyle Partners VI Cayman Holdings, L.P. being the record holder of the shares. The Carlyle Group Inc., through its various subsidiaries and affiliates, including Carlyle Holdings II GP L.L.C., Carlyle Holdings II L.L.C., CG Subsidiary Holdings L.L.C., TC Group Cayman Investment Holdings, L.P., TC Group Cayman Investment Holdings Sub L.P., TC Group VI Cayman, L.L.C., and TC Group VI Cayman, L.P.
The Carlyle Group is still monetizing Ortho Clincial Diagnostics, which it bought from Johnson & Johnson in 2014. Carlyle took Ortho public before Quidel purchased the company in 2022.
As of April 2024 Carlyle owned over 12 million shares of QuidelOrtho (18% of the float). That leaves much more cashing in to do. Even after the sale Carlyle holds nearly 11.8 million shares.
Flashback to 2009 when a Carlyle SEC filing clarified:
Pursuant to an agreement between DBD Cayman, Ltd. and its Class B member, Carlyle Offshore Partners II, Limited, voting power over the shares of common stock of the issuer is held by Carlyle Offshore Partners II, Limited. Carlyle Offshore Partners II, Limited has 13 members, with no member controlling more than 7.7% of the vote, consisting of William Conway, Jr., David Rubenstein, Daniel D'Aniello, Peter Clare, Robert Grady, Allan Holt, Bruce Rosenblum, Glenn Youngkin, Jean Millet, Adam Palmer, Daniel Akerson, Robert Stuckey, and Peter Nachtwey. The directors of Carlyle Offshore Partners II, Limited are Allan Holt, Bruce Rosenblum, Jeffrey W. Ferguson, Daniel D'Aniello, William Conway, Jr. and David Rubenstein. Each of the members and directors disclaims beneficial ownership of the shares of common stock of the issuer."DBD" refers to the Carlyle Group's three founders, David Rubenstein, Bill Conway and Daniel D'Aniello. The SEC's website showed:
Note that Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin played the tax avoidance game while a private equity underwriter (PEU).
Beryl spared the Cayman's on July 4th, Independence Day. That's symbolic for the U.S. given the PEU boys outsized political sway. Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one
Glenn Youngkin at 6'8" has the height to do better in storm surge than most people. Let's not kid ourselves. In a dangerous situation Youngkin and his Carlyle peers would've private jetted their way out.
As Beryl approaches the Texas coast it may strike close to Aransas Pass. The Carlyle Group abandoned its lead developer role for an oil terminal at Harbor Island. Glenn Youngkin was co-CEO and responsible for infrastructure projects. He's never said why Carlyle flaked on that public-private partnership.
Once Beryl weakens it is projected to drop significant rainfall near the Dallas area where Carlyle took $35 million in state tax money to provide 3,000 jobs at Vought Aircraft but never did.
It just occurred to me Tropical Storm Beryl may follow the path of PEU storm Carlyle. They both can sneak up on you and do a lot of damage.
Update 7-21-24: Carlyle continued to monetize
OrthoQuidel even after Beryl spared the Caymans. Over five trading days various Carlyle affiliates (many
with Cayman names) sold shares worth over $10 million. Ka-ching!