The document analyzes what information the top 30 private equity firm websites provide about their brands, finding that most discuss investment strategy, team, and investments, but fewer differentiate themselves or discuss financial performance. It notes branding helps convey expectations and build trust with key constituencies like investors, management, and employees. Strong brands that meet expectations can command a premium and provide competitive advantages for private equity firms.

1. PE Brands: What Do GP Websites Say?
June 2011
David Haarmeyer
dhaarmeyer@gmail.com

2. Focus Group: Top 30 PE Firms Selected From PEI 300 –
Ranking By Capital Raised Over Last Five Years (April 2010)
1. The Carlyle Group $48b 16. Providence Equity Partners $12b
2. KKR $47b 17. Clayton Dubilier & Rice $12b
3. TPG $45b 18. Terra Firma Capital Partners $12b
4. Apollo Global Mgmt $35b 19. Bridgepoint $11b
5. CVC Capital Partners $34b 20. Teachers’ Private Capital $11b
6. The Blackstone Group $31b 21. Charterhouse Capital Partners $11b
7. Bain Capital $29b 22. Fortress Investment Group $11b
8. Warburg Pincus $22b 23. Madison Dearborn Partners $11b
9. Apax Partners $22b 24. Oaktree Capital Mgmt $11b
10. First Reserve Corp. $19b 25. TA Associates $11b
11. Advent International $18b 26. Thomas H. Lee Partners $10b
12. Hellman & Friedman $17b 27. Cinven $10b
13. Cerberus Capital Mgmt $15b 28. Silver Lake $9b
14. General Atlantic $15b 29. BC Partners $9b
15. Permira $13b 30. Nordic Capital $8b
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3. What Do PE Websites Say About Their Brands?
• There is a wide range in the type and amount of descriptive detail offered across top PE firm
websites, but over 80% include information on:
– Investment strategy (97%) and investments (87%)
– Team (90%)
– Regional focus (80%)
• Less than 60% either define a unique value creation strategy or go into detail to explain their
strategy (e.g., less than 30% include case studies)
• One third have a tagline or descriptive phase that differentiates their investment strategy or focus
– “Deep industry experience, globally applied” – Carlyle
– “Sector focus, local presence, global reach” – Apax Partners
– “Building businesses, building value” – CDR
• Only 10% mention financial performance
• Less than 30% use social media (blogs, videos, or articles) though 40% include annual reports
• Bottom line: top PE firms as a group tend to focus their messaging (branding elements) around
investments, strategy, and team indicating an opportunity for more differentiation on themes that
may appeal to particular constituents (e.g., co-investment, ESG, firm values)
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4. Top 30 PE Firms: Summarized Website Content
Investment Strategy
Team
Investments
New s
Regional Focus
Industry Focus
LP Login
Value Add/Value Creation
ESG/Community
Investor Composition
Annual Report
Tagline
Operating Partners
Case Studies
Articles/New sletters
GP/Firm Values
Social Media/Videos
Returns
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Percent
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5. Background: Why Brands Matter
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6. The Value of a Strong, Trusted Brand
• A brand is a credible signal about the quality of a firm’s reputation earned over time
• Key assessors of a PE firm’s brand equity:
– Investors
– Prospective target company management
– Debt market participants
– Prospective employees
– Regulators, media, and public
• A strong, trusted brand can provide quality assurance, hence command a premium, and be a
source of competitive advantage
• Brand building and maintenance is about providing clear, consistent and compelling messaging
around what differentiates a firm from its competition
• Key elements that firm’s use to distinguish themselves include:
– Performance track record
– Management team – continuity, breadth and depth
– Distinct value creation capabilities and proprietary investment thesis
– Co-investment commitment
• A brand can be denoted by company name, logo, tagline or some combination
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7. Anatomy of a PE Brand: Five Key Constituencies
Prospective Portfolio Co. Mgmt. Investors
• Critical to deal flow
• Funding source
• Change – greater competition for
• Change – becoming more selective of GPs, more
managers’ allegiance demanding of information and terms, and more
powerful
Brand
Conveys expectation of
what firm will deliver Prospective Employees
Reputation is strengthen
when the Brand Promise Reputation • Key resource for building teams
Is met over time sum of how all • Change – Growth of PE business puts
constituencies premium on top talent
view organization
Regulators, Media, Public
Debt Providers • Generally skeptical, not knowledgeable of PE
• Critical for deal making and generating • Change – Increasing PE activity could
attractive returns amplify this bias; SEC registration will
• Change – After credit crisis, banking require increased transparency
reforms, more discerning
Organizations with solid reputations are likely to have stronger and more stable returns, an easier time hiring and
retaining the best recruits, and a greater likelihood of enduring the challenges of a crisis. Reputation Institute
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8. As Environment Changes, So Do the Values and
Expectations of Key Constituents
Brand Elements Changing Environment
“Great Recession”
Mission
LP Negotiating Power
Strategy
Responsible Investing
+ Performance
Track Record Media Scrutiny and Bad Press
Leadership
Greater Regulation
Team
Resources Growing Competition
Values
Key Constituents
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9. Brand Elements, Builders and Amplifiers
Brand Elements Brand Builders & Amplifiers
PPM / Presentations
Mission
Central Repository of brand
Strategy Website and message
+ Performance
Track Record IR – All Investor Touch Points
Leadership
Team Media – e.g., TPG and KKR BusinessWeek
Resources stories
Values
Thought Leadership and Annual Reports
“We treat our site as probably the most
Important tool we have” Riverside Co. • Is there Consistency of Tone, Message and
Appearance?
• Is there a Guardian of the Brand”
• Is the brand identity consistent across constituents?
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10. Taking the Message to the Media
Investors "are much more interested today in how you're
going to deliver that value you're promising, They say,
'Give me examples.'“
TPG Co-Founder Jim Coulter
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11. Billion Dollar Brands
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12. "We can afford to lose money. We can afford to lose a lot of money. But we cannot afford to lose one shred of our
reputation. Make sure everything you do can be reported on the front page of your local newspaper written by an
unfriendly, but intelligent reporter.”
Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, Dec. 2002
“A brand creates a differential between firms. Out of two firms with equal performance, one will fare better in the
minds of investors if it has a better brand.”
Sir Ronald Cohen, Co-founder of Apax Partners, 2009
Investors "are much more interested today in how you're going to deliver that value you're promising. . .They say,
give me examples. . . It's time for us to enter the narrative.”
James Coulter, co-founder of TPG, Feb 17, 2011
“Without market beta in the form of strong GDP growth, expanding multiples and abundant leverage to drive
returns, both GPs and LPs recognize that only the alpha that PE firms can provide through proprietary investment
theses, enhanced due diligence and post-acquisition value-creation skills will lead their portfolio to outperform.
Bain & Co., Global Private Equity Report 2011
“By sharing information, meeting with the media, answering the critics and explaining our business, we’ve changed
our brand.”
Christopher Ullman, Carlyle Group, 2011
“Our assets are our people, capital and reputation. If any of these are ever diminished, the last is the most difficult
to restore.”
Goldman Sachs Business Principles
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13. Biographical Information
David Haarmeyer is a strategic communications, marketing, and economics professional with over 15
years of experience in consulting, start up and nonprofit environments. He has worked as a
consultant for Cambridge Energy Research Associates, Global Environment Fund, the World Bank,
the Federal Trade Commission, among others.
Mr. Haarmeyer has strong technical communication, organizational, and branding skills; and is a
published writer in major business and finance publications including Journal of Applied Corporate
Finance, Institutional Investor, Financial Times, and Wall Street Journal. He has a special expertise
in breaking down and communicating complex economic ideas for strategy and sales/marketing.
Selected publications and presentations include:
• “Africa: Next Global Growth Engine?” Institutional Investor (online magazine), September 2009.
• “Private Equity Benefit: Accountability,” American Banker (Viewpoint), August 7, 2009.
• “Private Equity: Capitalism’s Misunderstood Entrepreneurs and Catalysts for Value Creation,” The
Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy, Fall 2008, pp. 245-288.
• “Active Investors and Ideology: Private Equity and it’s Discontents,” Presentation at the Association
of Private Enterprise Education Annual Meetings, Las Vegas, April 7, 2008.
• "The Revolution in Active Investing: Creating Wealth and Better Governance," Journal of Applied
Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley Publication, Spring 2007. 13