Biden's Cabinet from PEU Pine Island Capital

 

President Joe Biden's Secretary of State Antony Blinken worked for Pine Island Capital Partners and the Defense Secretary nominee could come from the same private equity underwriter (PEU).  Two candidates, Michele Flourney and General Lloyd Austin have been mentioned for the top civilian defense slot.

Pine Island Capital Partners promotes the company as being deeply connected.  Representing the Red Team are former Senators Saxby Chambliss and Don Nickles, while the Blues have former House leader Dick Gephardt and former Senators Tom Daschle and Byron Dorgan.

How did a D.C. based private equity firm with only two affiliates, InVeris and  Precinmac, attract such talent?  Former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain could shed light on the answer.

FT wrote about Thain after the 2008 financial crisis:

John Thain is giving us a tour of what is soon to become America’s most infamous office, with its $87,000 rug, $68,000 sideboard, $28,000 curtains – all part of a $1.2m redecoration scheme. This was early December, a little under two months before Thain would be fired in the same room by his new boss, Ken Lewis, chief executive of Bank of ­America.

Thain went on to lead CIT out of bankruptcy and currently sits on the boards of Uber and Deutsche Bank.

Biden's appointment of multiple cabinet members from one PEU would be head scratching.  Then again, politicians Red and Blue love PEU, even if they have a lackluster SPAC.

Update 11-29-20:  NYT wrote a piece citing concerns about some Biden cabinet nominees.  PEUReport isn't alone in questioning how all this talent landed at one relatively small PEU.  Politico also did a piece on this.  Recall Obama health reformer continued to profit from her PEU work as a public servant in the White House.

Update 5-26-22:  Pine Island Capital's Tom Daschle came up with the idea to have Senators Bernie Sanders and Lindsey Graham debate.  The greed and leverage boys are happy for the public to be divided as they loot the federal treasury.  Does the debate winner get a free chauffeur and the use of a limousine?   It's a PEU perk.

Carlyle After Another Indian Pharma Company

 

Seeking Alpha reported:

• Carlyle Group is in advanced talks to buy Granules India, a pharmaceuticals maker, for ~$1B, India's CNBC-TV18 reports, citing three sources with direct knowledge of the deal.
  
• That would add on to Carlyle's pharmaceutical industry investments after recently acquiring Sequent Scientific and a  minority stake in Piramal Pharma.

It's not clear how Granules might grow Carlyle's COVID-19 profit plans.  Granules does have a clinical research and manufacturing arm as well as a number of FDA approved drug production sites.

Where Americans see high costs, Carlyle sees grand profits.

Everyone Cheers for Yellen

Michael Every of Rabobank wrote on ZeroHedge:

Yellen’s long career arc from academic economics to economic advisor to presidents, then to Fed chief, and now to economic chief for a president, has not exactly overlapped with a concurrent period of relative American economic ascent – or at least not for the majority of its population. Yellen of course expressed her concerns over inequality as far back as September 2014: yet the central conclusion of that speech was that the poor would be less poor if only they had more assets.

Reuters reported in April 2018, two months after she left the top job at the Fed:

Janet Yellen cashed in with her first paid visit to Wall Street since stepping down as Federal Reserve chair, discussing rate hikes and U.S. President Donald Trump at events on Monday that included a dinner for 40 at a CEO’s Manhattan penthouse.

Over the penthouse dinner of lobster, beef short ribs and matzo in the trendy Tribeca neighborhood, Yellen held court with executives from hedge funds, private equity firms and companies, according to two people briefed on the gathering.

The greed and leverage boys are front and center in President Elect Joe Biden's nominations.  Loud cheers for President Elect Biden's Treasury nominee.  Everyone loves Yellen, ..  

Politicians Red and Blue love PEU.

Trump Advisor Schwarzman Ready to Profit Under Biden

 

Axios reported:

It's over. That's what Blackstone chairman, CEO and co-founder Steve Schwarzman — one of President Trump's most loyal allies — and other top Republicans are signaling to the defeated president, 16 days after Joe Biden clinched the win. 

Schwarzman said in a statement to Axios that Biden won and it's time to move on. 

Bloomberg added:

The Trump era has been wildly lucrative for pretty much anyone who’s been invested in markets. Schwarzman has seen his personal fortune roughly double to $20 billion.

Blackstone had the Blue Team covered with Executive Vice Chairman Tony James and President/COO Jon Gray.

Schwarzman's capitulation was greased by President Elect Biden's appointment of two private equity underwriters, Ron Klain (Revolution LLC) and Antony Blinken (Pine Island Capital).  

In case a history rewrite is needed,  Schwarzman's alter ego Mr. Stone served as close advisor to President Trump.

 

 

That frees up the real Schwarzman to profit handsomely under the Blue Team.  Politicians Red and Blue love PEU. 

Biden's Secretary of State is PEU

President Joe Biden announced his nominee for Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.  Biden is two for two in naming private equity underwriters (PEU) to his administration.  Chief of Staff Ron Klain worked for Revolution LLC.  Antony Blinken worked for Pine Island Capital Partners.  Their website shows Blinken's status as "on leave."

Pine Island Capital Partners offers a differentiated approach to private equity investing in the middle market. 

Pine Island has combined an experienced investment team with a group of deeply-connected and accomplished former senior government and military officials. Each of our D.C. partners teams with the investment professionals to actively participate in sourcing deals, conducting analyses, winning bids, closing transactions, and directly advising the companies in which Pine Island invests.

Blinken used his deep connections to aid the greed and leverage boys.    

Pine Island Capital Partners seeks to invest in attractive mid-sized companies, with enterprise values ranging from $50 million to $500 million, that are positioned to benefit from the deep industry expertise, experience, and relationships that the firm’s partnership model can offer. 

Investments may take the form of a number of different transactions, including buyouts, roll-ups, recapitalizations, asset sales, divestitures, growth capital, and special situations. 

Surely there are talented Americans who haven't prioritized interest and special distributions over employees.  Blinken represents the winners in the U.S. economy over the last four decades.  He is of the executive class that has screwed workers while profiting handsomely.

Somehow FT couldn't find Blinken's PEU background in their story on Biden's announcement.  Blinken and Flournoy founded WestExec Advisors in 2018.  WestExec and Pine Island are intertwined.

Additional Pine Island Capital Partners are under consideration for cabinet slots under President Elect Biden.  Politicians Red and Blue love PEU.  That pattern is yet to break. 

Update 5-10-21:  ABC News reported:

Late last month, secretary of state nominee Tony Blinken reported making more than $1 million from his consulting firm WestExec Advisors, and entered an agreement to divest from the firm, according to his disclosures. 

What about his stake in Pine Island Capital and their funds/affiliates?

Carlyle to Flip European Lingerie Firms, Double Upgrade

The Carlyle Group hired JP Morgan to help sell Hunkemoller after hiring the same firm earlier this year to move Twin Set.  Both are European lingerie companies.

Bank of America gave The Carlyle Group a double upgrade to buy from under-perform.  BOA cited a looming funding super cycle.  More like a PEU pandemic.

Taylor Swift Got Mountain Watered by Carlyle Group

The Carlyle Group financed Ithaca Holding's purchase of Taylor Swift's music.  Variety reported Ithaca flipped those master rights for a big payday.

Some 17 months after Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings LLC acquired Big Machine Label Group and all of its recorded music assets, sources tell Variety the veteran manager and entrepreneur has sold the master rights to Taylor Swift’s first six albums. The buyer, an investment fund, is as yet unknown but the deal is believed to be north of $300 million and closed in the last two weeks. Some insiders speculate the value could be as high as $450 million once certain earn-backs are factored in.

Carlyle co-founder David Rubenstein told Fox Business Maria Bartirome he "remained hopeful that the parties would be able to reach an agreement."

I do think there'll be a resolution of that in the near future," Rubenstein said. "Hopefully, [Swift] can continue to do very good music, but it's something that is more complicated than my being able to resolve it right here."

That was December 2019.  Swift shared her efforts to purchase rights to her music. Swift wrote on social media to her more than 87 million Twitter followers.

"As you know, for the past year I've been actively trying to regain ownership of my master recordings. With that goal in mind, my team attempted to enter into negotiations with Scooter Braun,"

 

"Scooters team wanted me to sign an ironclad NDA stating I would never say another word about Scooter Braun unless it was positive, before we could even look at the financial records of BMLG (which is always the first step in a purchase of this nature."

 

"I would have to sign a document that would silence me forever before I could even have a chance to bid on my own work. My legal team said that this is absolutely NOT normal, and they've never seen an NDA like this presented unless it was to silence an assault accuser by paying them off. He would never even quote my team a price. These master recordings were not for sale to me." 

The City of Missoula, Montana tried multiple times to buy Mountain Water before and during Carlyle ownership.  It took a condemnation lawsuit for Missoula to buy their local water supplier.  Swift does not have such a remedy.

Taylor's Army no longer can boycott Golden Goose sneakers or Supreme streetwear and inflict financial pain on Rubenstein's rapscallions.  Carlyle flipped both investments for more big paydays. 

 

PEU Shamrock Holdings informed Swift of their purchase.

 

Swift said that she was only made aware of Braun selling her masters after she received a letter from a private equity company, Shamrock Holdings, letting her know they had purchased her music, videos and album art.

 

"This was the second time my music had been sold without my knowledge." Swift continued. "The letter told me that they wanted to reach out before the sale to let me know, but that Scooter Braun had required that they make no contact with me or my team, or the deal would be off."

 

Swift also posted a photo of a letter she wrote to Shamrock Holdings.

 

Carlyle is consistent in their use of leverage in their greedy pursuits.  If they can roll Taylor Swift multiple times the average American stands no chance. 

Sadly, Carlyle has targeted the coronavirus for profits.  More cases, more serious illness, the more Carlyle cashes in.  President Trump provided a wide lane for The Carlyle Group to profit from American suffering.    

Update 11-20-20:  Carlyle plans to flip European lingerie makers Twin Set and Hunkemoller.  JP Morgan is assisting with the sale of both companies.  Swift's potential boycott pool is shrinking.

Update 12-10-20:  Swift will surprise release her second album this year, Evermore.  The article stated:

Swift is also currently re-recording her first six albums, amid a dispute over the master recordings with music mogul Scooter Braun. She told an American Music awards audience in November, via a video message: “The reason I’m not there tonight is I’m re-recording all of my old music in the studio we originally recorded it.”

Update 4-12-21:  Swift re-released her Fearless album.  Loyal fans are burying the old versions on Spotify.

Following Friday's midnight release of Fearless (Taylor's Version) — for which Swift re-recorded her music after failing to acquire the rights to her early albums two years ago — Swifties launched a campaign to bury the Big Machine version on Spotify.

Hopefully the unnamed investment firm can claw-back money from Ithaca and The Carlyle Group.  Taylor Swift, like the City of Missoula with Mountain Water, tried many times to buy back the rights to her music.