Yahoo Finance Permira Names New Top Leadership in Next Chapter for PE Firm
(Bloomberg) -- Permira is appointing two new co-managing partners, setting up fresh leadership at the top of the investment firm that manages about €80 billion ($86 billion) across private equity and credit funds.
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The firm is appointing Brian Ruder and Dipan Patel as co-managing partners and co-chief executive officers, according to a statement seen by Bloomberg News. Kurt Björklund, who is currently sole managing partner, will become executive chairman.
It marks the first major leadership change at Permira in 16 years. Björklund became co-managing partner in 2008, and has been sole head since 2021. Succession planning is important for private equity firms, since their investors commit money to funds that have lifespans of a decade or more.
Björklund said in the statement that he will “remain actively involved” as executive chairman, while the appointments of Ruder and Patel mark Permira’s “next chapter.” The appointments will become effective Sept. 1.
Ruder, a tech specialist who joined Permira in 2008, is based in Menlo Park, California. He chairs Permira’s growth opportunities investment committee and co-chairs the buyout funds’ investment committee. London-based Patel, who started in 2009, is co-head of Permira’s consumer sector team.
Over the last 16 years, Permira has almost tripled the size of its team and raised eight private equity funds and more than 30 credit vehicles, representing about €60 billion of capital. It has also expanded into the US over the last two decades, opening a New York office in 2002 and one in Menlo Park in 2008.
The firm, founded in 1985, said this year it will start a climate strategy to invest in companies related to the energy transition. It completed a €16.7 billion fundraising for its latest flagship fund in 2023, giving it fresh ammunition for deals.
While firms like Permira have managed to accumulate capital, investors generally are becoming more demanding, and are gravitating to firms that are actively putting their cash to work in order to return money.
Over the past couple of months, Permira has announced deals to invest in patient services provider PharmaCord, agreed to take website-builder Squarespace Inc. private in a $6.6 billion deal and acquired a majority stake in Israeli fraud-protection company BioCatch in a $1.3 billion transaction. Last year, it bought out other shareholders of classifieds firm Adevinta ASA alongside Blackstone Inc. in a €14 billion deal.
The firm earlier this year sold majority stakes in fund administrator Alter Domus and Spain’s Universidad Europe to Cinven and EQT AB, respectively.
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