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The founders and top executives of the largest private equity groups in the US have seen the value of their shares rise by more than $40bn since the beginning of 2023 as new assets have poured into their firms.
Shares in Blackstone, KKR, Apollo Global, Ares Management and TPG have neared or eclipsed record highs due to better-than-feared financial results. Those earnings were buoyed by growth in the firms’ overall assets, particularly credit and insurance-based investment operations, which benefited from fast-rising interest rates.
The stock gains have come at a time of unease across Wall Street and underscored the groups’ diversification away from traditional corporate buyouts, which slowed dramatically last year.
Read the full report here.
Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:
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BoE: Governor Andrew Bailey gives a lecture to students at Loughborough University during a visit to the East Midlands
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US-Middle East diplomacy: President Joe Biden hosts Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House for talks on resolving the Israel-Hamas war.
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Companies: French tyremaker Michelin issues full-year results while Israel-based tech group monday.com has a fourth-quarter update.
Five more top stories
1. Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda asylum bill is “fundamentally incompatible” with the UK’s human rights obligations and jeopardises the UK’s reputation for respecting the rule of law, a cross-party parliamentary committee has warned in a report that underscores the high stakes of the prime minister’s bid to remove asylum seekers to Rwanda before the next general election. Read more on its findings as the controversial legislation is set to undergo scrutiny in the House of Lords today.
2. Novo Holdings, the controlling shareholder of Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk, plans to invest up to $7bn annually by 2030, as dividend payments from the maker of blockbuster diabetes drug Ozempic and weight-loss treatment Wegovy boost its coffers. Find out which sectors the life sciences investor is eyeing for its increased funds.
3. A future Labour government would replace Britain’s “colonial-era” non-dom regime and create a modern tax system for people genuinely living in the UK for a short period of time, Jonathan Reynolds, shadow business spokesman, has told the Financial Times. While Britain needed to retain a competitive tax regime to ensure it remained attractive to global talent, the party is considering a less generous system with a shorter time window.
4. US President Joe Biden has warned Israel that it needs a “credible” plan to protect civilians before moving ahead with a new military operation in southern Gaza near the border with Egypt. Biden issued the warning during a call yesterday with Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, in the latest sign of unease in Washington with the conduct of the war against Hamas.
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Hostage rescue: The Israeli military announced early today that it had rescued two hostages seized by Hamas in a “complex operation” involving special forces in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
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Related: Surveys suggest that the majority of the Israeli public backs “total victory” over the militant group despite the mounting toll.
5. Former Finnish prime minister Alex Stubb will become the Nordic country’s next president after elections billed as the most consequential in decades for the country following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Stubb beat former foreign minister Pekka Haavisto, polling at 52 per cent versus 48 per cent yesterday evening, according to a preliminary tally with nearly all votes counted. Check what’s in the in-tray awaiting the next Finnish president.
Join FT foreign editor Alec Russell and guests on Thursday, February 22, for a subscriber webinar as Russia’s war against Ukraine enters its third year
The Big Read
AI-powered ads are fast and cheap to produce at massive scale with fine-tuned customer targeting optimised by the vast troves of data now collected on individuals. But some advertising executives warn that this strategy could risk talking themselves out of a job.
We’re also reading . . .
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AI and the afterlife: Henry Mance asks if it is really a good idea to have a chatbot that imitates the dead.
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Banks: Take a peek inside the Institut International d’Études Bancaires, the most exclusive and secretive networking club in European finance.
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Russia: The outperformance of the country’s GDP offers lessons — but not the ones Vladimir Putin thinks, writes Martin Sandbu.
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Africa: The US’s trade programme with the continent should be made fit for an era of renewed great power competition, writes Zainab Usman of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Chart of the day
As markets boost their bets on interest rate cuts this year, investors are heavily focused on exactly how low borrowing costs will ultimately fall as the inflationary menace retreats. Central banks including the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank will be influenced by an elusive and controversial concept: the so-called neutral rate of interest — the borrowing rate that keeps economies growing steadily, with full employment and inflation at about 2 per cent. Read what makes the neutral rate important.
Take a break from the news
Hyrox, a group exercise that combines cardio and strength, is the latest wellness event that is gaining popularity among professionals and a new generation of chief executives who are keen to promote a clean lifestyle and instil healthy competition among employees.
Additional contributions from Benjamin Wilhelm
Read the full article here