Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates and Nike Inc Chairman Phil Knight invested in a new buyout fund of as much as US$2.5 billion being raised by Oak Hill Capital Partners LP, a firm started by Texas billionaire Robert Bass.
Their participation was disclosed by Oak Hill managing partner Taylor Crandall during a fund-raising pitch to the Oregon Investment Council on Thursday. Bass, Knight and Oak Hill's 32 professionals invested a combined US$500 million in the new fund, Crandall said. The size of the investment by Gates wasn't disclosed.
Bass founded Oak Hill two decades ago to invest his own money. The organization, run from Menlo Park, California, and New York, acts as a family office for Bass and Knight and manages more than US$10 billion for individuals and institutions.
Bass "wouldn't be committing that type of money if he didn't have confidence in the team," Jay Fewel, senior equities investment officer for Oregon, told the council.
The Oregon council, which has been trying to invest money with different buyout managers partly to reduce its reliance on Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, approved US$100 million for the Oak Hill fund. The council oversees more than US$46 billion of state pension assets.
Other investors in the new fund include the government of Singapore and Stanford University, Crandall, 51, told the council. Oak Hill expects to finish raising the fund around the middle of the year.
The California Public Employees' Retirement System, the largest US pension fund, also invested, said Rick Hayes, who left Calpers to join Oak Hill as a managing partner last year.
Buyout and venture capital firms worldwide may seek to raise a record US$250 billion for new funds this year as lower borrowing costs make purchases cheaper and rising stock markets make it easier to profit from sales, according to Private Equity Intelligence Ltd.
Oak Hill has gathered US$1.4 billion of pledges after four months, said Hayes, 39. While the fund-raising document says the target is US$1.75 billion, Oak Hill will probably raise as much as US$2.5 billion, Fewel said.
CALL FOR SUPPORT: President William Lai called on lawmakers across party lines to ensure the livelihood of Taiwanese and that national security is protected President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for bipartisan support for Taiwan’s investment in self-defense capabilities at the christening and launch of two coast guard vessels at CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard in Kaohsiung. The Taipei (台北) is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels, and the Siraya (西拉雅) is the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) first-ever ocean patrol vessel, the government said. The Taipei is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels with a displacement of about 4,000 tonnes, Lai said. This ship class was ordered as a result of former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 2018
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
WARFARE: All sectors of society should recognize, unite, and collectively resist and condemn Beijing’s cross-border suppression, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said The number of Taiwanese detained because of legal affairs by Chinese authorities has tripled this year, as Beijing intensified its intimidation and division of Taiwanese by combining lawfare and cognitive warfare, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the statement in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈柏洋) about the government’s response to counter Chinese public opinion warfare, lawfare and psychological warfare. Shen said he is also being investigated by China for promoting “Taiwanese independence.” He was referring to a report published on Tuesday last week by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency,
‘ADDITIONAL CONDITION’: Taiwan will work with like-minded countries to protect its right to participate in next year’s meeting, the foreign ministry said The US will “continue to press China for security arrangements and protocols that safeguard all participants when attending APEC meetings in China,” a US Department of State spokesperson said yesterday, after Beijing suggested that members must adhere to its “one China principle” to participate. “The United States insists on the full and equal participation of all APEC member economies — including Taiwan — consistent with APEC’s guidelines, rules and established practice, as affirmed by China in its offer to host in 2026,” the unnamed spokesperson said in response to media queries about China putting a “one China” principle condition on Taiwan’s