What happens when you combine just about every major buzzword that has enveloped private equity in recent years in a single $12.5 billion transaction, one that underscores the many ways the industry has evolved and diversified away from its barbarian beginnings in the 1980s?
Blue Owl Capital is about to find out.
Dyal is a pioneer in the booming realm of GP stakes—it owns minority interests in dozens of prominent private equity and private credit firms, including Silver Lake and Vista Equity Partners. Owl Rock is a leader in direct lending, the business of providing loans to private equity portfolio companies. Adding to the fun is the fact that Dyal already owned a minority stake in Owl Rock. And the two have combined in the most 2021 manner possible: By merging with a SPAC sponsored by HPS Investment Partners, another prominent debt investor (which Dyal also owns a stake in), valuing the overall business at some $12.5 billion and creating a windfall for Dyal and Owl Rock executives.
