Crowdfunding Site “Fundrise” Raises 1st Round of Financing; Chinese Real Estate Moguls Join Tech Execs In Venture

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Brokerdealer.com provides below extract courtesy ofdealbook_post NY Times and reporter Amy Cortese.

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Fundrise co-founders Daniel Miller (l) and David Miller. Photo courtesy of Vannessa Vick for the NY Times

Fundrise, a website that aims to draw in a broad range of investors to finance commercial real estate deals, has raised more than $31 million in its first round of funding from a group of prominent technology, real estate and other backers.

Fundrise, based in Washington, is a pioneer in real estate crowdfunding, allowing individuals to directly invest with as little as $100 in hotels, apartment buildings and other development projects. Until recently, even small-scale real estate projects typically had been the exclusive domain of wealthy investors and private equity firms.

The company was founded by two brothers, Benjamin and Daniel Miller, in August 2012, shortly after the JOBS Act legalized crowdfunding, although they began working on the concept as early as 2010.

The financing round was led by Renren, a large social networking company based in China. It is also being backed by several real estate firms and individuals including executives of Silverstein Properties, the owner and developer of the World Trade Center; Rising Realty Partners, a Los Angeles developer; the Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group; Scott Plank, a real estate developer and former Under Armour executive; and Richard Boyle, former chief of Loopnet, an online commercial real estate listing service. The Collaborative Fund, an investment fund, also participated in the round.

For the full story from the New York Times DealBook, please click here.

Euronext Exchange to go Go Public via IPO

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BrokerDealer.com provides below news courtesy of AP Wire Services and Washington Post

Atlanta-based IntercontinentalExchange Group (ICE) said Tuesday it is launching an initial public offering (IPO) of ordinary shares in Euronext NV. The pan-European company operates exchanges in Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Lisbon.

For the full story, please visit the Washington Post

May 26 Post-IPO Quiet Period Expiry For Ares Management Opens A Cheap Window For A Solid Company; Underscoring Role of Underwriters

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BrokerDealer.com’s blog editor thanks Seeking Alpha for below extract; an independent analysis of alternative fund management firm Ares Management, which launched its initial public offering (IPO) on May 1. The analysis of this multi-strategy investment management platform was contributed by Don Dion, the owner and Chief Investment Officer of DRD Investments, LLC, based in Naples, FL. and Williamstown, MA., a family office focused on managing a long/short hedge fund, real estate assets and various other financial assets for the Dion family.

Summary

  • The Quiet period on underwriter research on ARES will come to an end on May 26th, 25 days after the firm’s May 1 IPO.
  • ARES has had a rocky start on the market post-IPO after pricing well below the expected range and continuing decline, despite strong underwriting, management, and revenues.
  • Given ARES’ strong fundamentals, we suggest investors consider buying into the company as share price could temporarily increase, following underwriter reports.

The SEC-enforced quiet period on underwriter research on Ares Management LP (ARES) will come to an end on May 26th, 25 days after the firm’s May 1 IPO.

The expiration of the quiet period will allow ARES’ IPO underwriters to publish research reports on the alternative asset manager, likely leading to at least a temporary increase in the price of ARES shares.

Strong Underwriting Could Lead To Flood of Positive Reports

The firm’s lengthy roster of underwriters, including BofA Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Barclays Capital Inc, BNY Mellon Capital Markets LLC, BMO Capital Markets Corp, Citigroup Global Markets Inc, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc, Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Goldman Sachs & Co, Imperial Capital LLC, Houlihan Lokey Capital Inc, JMP Securities LLC, Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Inc, Keefe Bruyette & Woods Inc, Morgan Stanley & Co LLC, SMBC Nikko Securities America Inc, RBC Capital Markets LLC, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Inc, Wells Fargo Securities LLC and UBS Investment Bank, will attempt to breathe life into the stock by unleashing a wave of positive research on ARES at the conclusion of the quiet period.

Correlation Between Underwriting and Share Price

Both the results of recent academic studies and our own research over the past two years have provided empirical evidence of a correlation between the reputation and quantity of IPO underwriters and a rise in share prices with the expiration of the quiet period; ARES’ impressive list of underwriters should prove an asset at the end of the quiet period.

Share prices usually begin to rise a few days in advance of the expiration as aggressive investors purchase shares in order to take advantage of the upcoming underwriter reports. These early buys generate an atmosphere of rising demand, causing a rise in the price of shares before the underwriters have had the opportunity to publish their reports.

Overview of ARES Business

ARES is an alternative asset management firm, offering a variety of investment strategies to its growing investor base.

About the Analyst Continue reading →

Private Equity Deals: Don’t Forget About The Fees; BrokerDealer.com Snapshot

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Extract courtesy of May 25  Sunday New York Times/Gretchen Morgenson

Private equity has become $3.5 trillion piece of the $64 trillion asset management industry.

There was joy on Park Avenue as the news arrived from Warsaw, a small Indiana city.

Two companies, twin pillars of Warsaw’s economy, had decided to merge. It was the biggest business story to hit the town in decades; an area newspaper, The Elkhart Truth, called the deal nothing short of an “earthquake.”

Back in New York, in the Midtown headquarters of the Blackstone Group, the tie-up meant a handsome payday for Blackstone and a handful of other private equity specialists. Together, they had bought one of the Warsaw companies, Biomet, in 2007. Now they had agreed to sell it for $13.4 billion, or $2 billion more than they paid.

 Such is the way of private equity, a signature Wall Street business of the past two decades. The sale — Biomet was bought by Zimmer Holdings, creating a leading orthopedics company — meant a nice return for everyone, including public pension funds that had invested their money in the private equity partnerships that owned Biomet.

But for Blackstone and the other private-equity partnerships in the deal — overseen by Goldman Sachs, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and TPG Capital — this deal will be a gift that keeps giving. That’s because, beyond the profits they share with their clients, they will be paid millions more in fees — for work that they are never going to do.

For the complete story from the NY Times, please click here

Wall St.Journal Reports “Small Stocks Roaring..Pink Sheets Percolating, Investor Demand Strong..”

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Brokerdealer.com is providing below news extract courtesy of WSJ and reporter Tomi Kilgore

wsj logoInvestors are piling into the shares of small, risky companies at the fastest clip on record, in search of investments that promise a chance of outsize returns.

The investors are buying up so-called penny stocks—shares of mostly tiny companies that aren’t listed on major U.S. exchanges—at a pace that far eclipses the tech boom of the late 1990s. Those include firms that focus on areas from medical marijuana and biotechnology to fuel-cell development and precious-metals mining—industries that are perceived by some investors as carrying strong growth potential.

Average monthly trading volume at OTC Markets Group Inc., OTCM 0.00% which handles trading in shares that aren’t listed on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq Stock Market, NDAQ +0.25% has risen 40% this year in dollar terms from a year ago, to a record $23.5 billion.

roaring bckThe renewed interest in a market that used to be known as the pink sheets—because of the colored pieces of paper once used to record prices for unlisted stocks—shows investors are ramping up risk in a bid to boost returns as U.S. stock indexes are hovering near highs and stock valuations have risen above historical norms.

For the complete story from the Wall Street Journal, please click here