2023年8月，马特·斯温（Matt Swain）刚升任Triago公司首席执行官，便收到了五份收购要约。他在私募股权一个名为“直接交易”的冷门细分领域打造了利润极高的业务——核心是为有意出售的稳健运营企业匹配寻求超额回报的家族办公室。如今，竞购方纷至沓来，包括西班牙和韩国的顶级银行、一家美国领先的私募股权公司、一家中西部大型贷款机构以及一家亚洲大型贸易公司。
然而在斯温权衡这些要约时，有一份脱颖而出——来自中型市场投行巨头华利安（Houlihan Lokey）的企业融资主席兼并购主管鲍勃·霍茨（Bob Hotz）。斯温确信华利安是他和团队的最佳归宿。因此，当他收到霍茨的邮件时倍感沮丧。霍茨写道：“我们遗憾地退出对Triago的收购考虑，”但同时指出，“您是我们感兴趣的主要原因”，并礼貌地提议次日上午9点20分简短喝杯咖啡。
斯温没抱太大期望。“我穿乐福鞋都没配袜子。任何随意、无关紧要的会面我都不穿袜子，”他回忆道，“我只想听听资深人士鲍勃的建议，看该选哪份要约。”早餐时，这位精力充沛的年轻人向比他年长半个世纪、银发温和的霍茨请教。“时间有限，我语速飞快，连平时常吃的牛油果吐司都没碰。我问鲍勃：‘哪个最合适？'结果鲍勃态度完全反转，说：‘我认为我们才是最佳合作伙伴。'”
8月30日（周三）晚11点，霍茨致电斯温，宣布决定收购——但条件是斯温必须在劳动节周末的周日离开他在楠塔基特岛满是宾客的家，飞赴伦敦进行密集的尽职调查。斯温应允后，带着塞满财务文件的鼓鼓囊囊的滚轮行李箱，登上了飞往希思罗机场的红眼航班。到下周周五，华利安已完成了这场闪电式收购，据称交易额远超1亿美元。
这场“联姻”在华尔街缔造了一支值得关注的力量——一边是精通交易的神奇小子，另一边是你可能从未听闻的中型投行巨头。二十岁出头时，甚至在加入Triago之前，斯温就比华尔街专业人士更早认识到：家族办公室财富的激增意味着他们对收购单个公司而非投资私募股权巨头组建的企业“盲池”抱有浓厚兴趣。
这些家族办公室的创始人通常曾创建并出售自己的公司，他们及其继承者乐于“亲自查验”，而不是让凯雷（Carlyle）或TPG替他们做决定。为满足超级富豪的这种需求，斯温建立了一个由富有冒险精神的“独立发起人”组成的广泛网络——这些运营者获取收购私营中型企业的意向书，业务涵盖从制造常规飞机零部件到以预定价格销售迪士尼品牌纪念品等各种领域。
这种投资者精挑细选自己的交易，而非加入某个私募巨头第七号基金的过程，被称为“直接交易”。它已存在数十年，但在斯温效力Triago的五年间，他证明了自己是推动该领域从冷门走向主流业务的核心人物，并成为该领域的王者。据《财富》基于行业数据的估算，采用对私营公司单笔投资的广义定义，今年所有直接交易的价值将激增至约2000亿美元，是几年前规模的数倍。
然而，“直接交易”要对私募巨头构成任何实质性威胁还有很长的路要走。尽管斯温雄心勃勃，但私募的传统中坚力量——大型养老基金、保险公司和捐赠基金——尚未大规模采用。这些大型机构仍绝大多数选择基金池，这样可以快速投入大量资金，而无需专业团队来解析这些定制化交易。与此同时，成功引来竞争——斯温通过收购并重整廉价、被忽视的中小型公司所获得的丰厚回报正吸引越来越多竞争者，这一趋势可能推高价格并压缩利润。
但似乎没有什么挑战能难倒斯温，他建立了庞大的人脉网，其中包括已故房地产大亨山姆·泽尔（Sam Zell）家族、驻英国大使沃伦·斯蒂芬斯（Warren Stephens）家族的投资部门，以及罗姆尼（Romney）家族和布隆伯格（Bloomberg）家族等众多显赫名字。他证明了自己是筛选顶级发起人和识别那些承诺——并在几年后兑现——超越私募股权巨额回报的投资项目的专家。“在马特之前，我们得自己找独立发起人，这很困难，”管理着140笔直接交易、规模达20亿美元投资组合的Ocean Avenue Capital Partners创始合伙人杜兰·库里斯（Duran Curis）说。“他的巨大贡献在于他为我们找到这些发起人，并呈现最佳机会。”如今，借助华利安的雄厚实力，斯温计划开始向养老基金、捐赠基金和资产管理公司推销。
Ronin Equity Partners联合创始人大卫·费尔斯坦（David Feierstein）补充道，斯温曾为其投资公司筹集数亿美元资金，用于六项收购。“如果没有像马特这样积极进取且魅力超凡的人，直接交易行业绝不可能达到今天的水平。马特拥有先发优势。在直接交易领域，马特是主导者。”
魅力攻势
斯温有些罕见之处：他是一个年轻的智者，却以华尔街老派的方式——在量化交易和Excel模型兴起之前——通过魅力攻势建立业务，编织起竞争对手难以企及的紧密关系网。值得注意的是，这位超级推销员出身于极其优渥的背景。他在康涅狄格州格林威治长大，父亲是一家知名对冲基金的首席财务官。他的祖先是楠塔基特岛的原始所有者。“马特告诉我，他的家族世代都来楠塔基特岛。所以我们步行去买咖啡，路过斯温街，然后是斯温故居，接着我们去捕鲸博物馆，迎面看到他祖先的六幅肖像，”兰登（Landon）家族办公室（旗下包括斯温直接交易的长期投资者兰登资本合伙公司）首席执行官鲁珀特·埃迪斯（Rupert Edis）说。
斯温毕业于科尔盖特大学（Colgate University），在校期间担任学生会主席并是壁球明星——他至今仍是曼哈顿最好的业余选手之一。之后他加入斯迪富（Stifel），在一个为对冲基金募资的“配置顾问”部门工作。经理们惊讶于家族办公室不回复他们的电话，于是指派斯温从一个包含1000个最富裕家族的“失效名单”中寻找潜在客户。这个新人遭遇的大多是拒绝、斥责，甚至还有没挂电话的受访者骂他“你个侏儒！”，但他也从中发现了市场空白。
斯温扮演了媒人的角色。他发现独立发起人IVEST需要资金收购一家名为Dan Dee的毛绒玩具供应商，于是带其负责人去了索拉梅尔（Solamere）家族办公室，该办公室代表罗姆尼家族、前沃尔玛（Walmart）首席执行官李斯阁（Lee Scott）及其他富裕投资者。斯温筹集了1亿美元完成了这笔收购。到2018年，他找到了一个规模刚好够小、胆子够大，愿意尝试他围绕直接交易构建完整业务愿景的地方：Triago，这家由法国人安托万·德雷昂（Antoine Dréan）创立的公司，在一项近亲业务——为寻求出售其在私募股权基金中份额的有限合伙人寻找买家——上做得风生水起。
斯温迅速将直接交易变成了Triago的利润驱动力。三年间，他为35笔交易筹集了30亿美元股权资本，加上债务融资，支持的收购总额超过100亿美元。2022年4月，德雷昂任命这位27岁的后起之秀为首席执行官。
大型私募股权基金通常在较长持有期内为投资者带来两倍回报，而直接交易的目标远高于此。“我们的投资者期望获得三倍或以上的回报，”与斯温广泛合作的Castle Harlan公司董事总经理帕特里克·齐拉（Patrick Zyla）表示。
常规私募基金以每年对投资者所有资金收取约2%的费用而闻名，无论这些资金是否已投入使用。直接交易的发起人通常根本不收取任何费用，而且更妙的是，除非他们取得巨大成功，否则拿不到报酬。行业巨头通常在出售公司时获得固定的20%利润分成（即“绩效收益”）。但直接交易的结构通常是，发起人在达到2倍回报基准前分文不取。超过这个数字后，他们开始收取20%的分成，但随着返还投资者本金的倍数增加，他们的分成比例急剧上升。如果发起人-管理者达到5倍回报，他们可以拿走高达40%的收益。
山姆·泽尔（Sam Zell）及其团队为斯温的多项交易提供了资金，他非常喜欢直接交易这种极度的“利益共享”特性。（斯温提到，泽尔喜欢和这个年轻人合影，因为斯温只比这位已故的矮个子大亨略高一点。）泽尔及其家族办公室EGI的总裁马克·索蒂尔（Mark Sotir）会推动斯温安排那些提高利润分成门槛，但在取得惊人业绩时给予管理团队更高回报的交易。
鉴于私募股权退出渠道急剧萎缩，这使得华利安目前的定位尤为吸引人：据代表养老基金进行投资的汉领资本（Hamilton Lane）称，截至2021年，私募股权公司在收购五年后仍持有其收购交易的45%；去年，约有65%的交易在五年后仍未售出。
与此同时，斯温的模式以速度取胜。直接交易中，资金到位快，费用收取也快。代表私募股权公司的配置顾问通常需要9到18个月才能募完一只基金。但一旦斯温团队获得发起人的委托，他和他的银行家们通常在8到9周内就能完成巡回推介并确保资金到位。他的40人团队还专注于规模越来越大的交易，这提高了他们从平均直接交易中获得的收益。今年，他预计完成约12笔交易，平均企业价值在2亿至4亿美元之间。“这远远超过行业平均水平，”他声称。“我们正在处理一笔价值20亿美元的交易，而且这个数字还会继续攀升。”
延长的持有时间以及有限合伙人对流动性的渴望，应会特别有利于斯温和华利安设想的超越传统直接交易的第一个重大扩展领域：即所谓的存续基金（CVs）。在这种模式下，基金标记出一个前景光明的杰出公司，并在退出其他投资时不想出售它。如今，Evercore是最大的参与者，但华利安正在崛起。存续基金以良好回报让该明星“保留资产”中的大多数现有有限合伙人套现退出，并用一批新的投资者取代他们，这些新投资者认为通过再持有并发展这家杰出公司三四年将会带来巨大收益。该公司从基金中剥离出来，作为独立实体继续运营。新来者再次进行“直接”投资，因为他们是在逐笔交易的基础上进行采购。
第二个分支是所谓的“联合投资”。私募股权公司日益寻求在原始投资者对特定基金的出资之外筹集更多资金。例如，基金经理看到一家软件供应商正以低价出售，想将其加入科技投资组合。或者对任何单一收购的“集中度限制”是3亿美元，而他们不愿错过一个价值4.5亿美元的完美标的。或者目标可能是完成一次大型附加收购，或通过新建工厂来满足未预见到的销售激增。在所有这些情况下，基金可能缺乏抓住机会的资金。它可能金库里还有3亿美元，但还需要再筹集几亿美元。
斯温和华利安团队认为这个尚处于萌芽阶段的领域是募资和投行业务的巨大利润来源。这对基金有限合伙人来说很划算，因为他们无需为额外资本支付费用或绩效收益。新投资者支付的绩效收益与业绩紧密挂钩：起始比例较低，并根据实现的利润水平上升。这种安排使联合投资者能够挑选自己的个别交易，这正是直接交易的一大吸引力。
这些机会不再主要来自斯温过去代表的小型发起人，而是源自大型、成熟的私募机构，这些机构已运营这些候选项目多年，并且无论在联合投资资产还是公司整体业绩方面都能展示出令人印象深刻的历史记录。这种认可极大地提升了它们的吸引力。
“每天每分钟都在想着商业”
在华利安，斯温坚持着他标志性的、马不停蹄的社交圆舞曲。他的大部分业务都在曼哈顿中城五个街区的半径内进行。他住在公园大道一栋摩尔风格的高层建筑里，从埃里克·特朗普（Eric Trump）那里租了一套公寓；伊万卡·特朗普（Ivanka Trump）是他的邻居。斯温主要在附近两家餐馆进行主要的交易洽谈：高档法式餐厅Le Bilboquet和Loews Regency Bar & Grill。“我在Loews连轴转吃早餐，然后在Bilboquet吃午餐，”他坦言。“晚上则分三步曲。先在Bilboquet喝杯鸡尾酒，然后是一顿正餐，接着是边喝酒边长谈。30岁之前，会持续到午夜。现在我30岁了，11点或午夜前结束。”为了提高效率，新客人一到，斯温就会换桌子，即使旧客人还坐在那里。私募股权公司Seven Point的管理合伙人汤姆·伯奇尔（Tom Burchill）指出：“他从一极弹到另一极。有一次，我在Bilboquet占用了他45分钟。算我走运。”在楠塔基特岛时，斯温会驾驶一种硬底、海豹突击队风格的超高速橡皮艇在岛上疾驰，这种艇曾被乌克兰军队使用。他特意进口了它，这笔钱给了那家希望为陷入困境的国家支持就业的制造商。
他的商业伙伴认为他既轻松迷人，又醉心事业。“马特每天每分钟都在想着商业，”被斯温尊称为“鲍勃叔叔”的霍茨评论道。科技私募股权公司NewSpring Capital的管理普通合伙人迈克·迪皮亚诺（Mike DiPiano）补充说：“他是个无时无刻不在推销的年轻人。”他吸引顶尖年长名人的能力非凡。”他年纪轻轻却有着老成的灵魂，而且这很有感染力，”斯蒂芬斯（Stephens）家族办公室的凯文·威尔科克斯（Kevin Wilcox）说。兰登家族办公室的埃迪斯赞扬斯温”吸引有权势的导师和盟友”的诀窍，并称他迅速完成任务的能力为“拿破仑式”——顺便说一句，斯温身高5英尺8英寸，中等身材，就像他营销的公司一样。
尽管华利安在18个月前收购了Triago，但双方都已为对方带来巨大利益。令人惊讶的是，这家公司如此不为人知。华利安是全球中型私营企业的最大投行。过去十年间，它也是华尔街回报投资者的佼佼者，而且领先幅度很大。在此期间，其年化股东总回报率达到26.4%，超过了拉扎德（Lazard，5.9%）、杰富瑞（Jefferies，13.2%）、Moelis（17.2%）和Evercore（22%）等同行精品投行，同时也超越了花旗集团（Citigroup，9.3%）、美国银行（Bank of America，14.5%）、高盛（Goldman Sachs，18.0%）、摩根士丹利（Morgan Stanley，19.9%）和摩根大通（J.P. Morgan，20.3%）等巨头。早在2015年秋，华利安的市值还落后于杰富瑞、拉扎德和Evercore。如今其市值达136亿美元，已超过这三家的总和。
新合并公司协同效应的一个主要优势是：源自华利安私募股权客户的直接交易、基金投资、存续基金和联合投资。2023年，由前巴克莱（Barclays）首席执行官鲍勃·戴蒙德（Bob Diamond）领导的对冲基金与私募股权混合基金Atlas Merchant Capital，聘请华利安担任其顾问，为保险经纪领域领先平台MarshBerry进行了一笔重要的基金投资。戴蒙德是斯温的粉丝，曾是Triago的竞购者之一。既然斯温已加入华利安，戴蒙德正在基金投资和直接交易两方面给予该公司业务；他最近聘请斯温团队为Atlas的投资组合公司获取后续资本。
存续基金的人脉也在为华利安带来咨询费。去年十月，斯温为私募股权基金NewSpring筹集了资金，该基金以在2000年代收购Nutrisystem大获成功而闻名，这次是为一个合并了其两个明星投资组合资产的工具筹资。“你意识到，如果能持有这些投资更久，你会从中获得更多，”联合创始人迪皮亚诺说。通过各种电话沟通，华利安向家族办公室投资者提供了投资银行指导，分析交易的利弊。
在联合投资方面，规模140亿美元的私募股权公司Riverside，作为华利安多年的客户但从未与Triago合作过，正在寻求额外的联合投资股权，以此吸引新的有限合伙人并完成两项新投资。通过华利安的关系，斯温团队介入了。“我们短时间内被介绍给几十家有限合伙人，并获得了其中多家的投资，”该公司管理合伙人佩吉·罗伯茨（Peggy Roberts）说。“与华利安合作帮助我们与不会遇到的公司建立了持续的关系。”
过去九个月，华利安为斯温的忠实客户Ronin筹集了超过5亿美元，用于确保三笔收购。六月，斯温团队为Ronin提供了资金，用于收购一家维修和检修商用飞机系统的公司。华利安代表家族办公室投资者进行了分析。四月，兰登资本合伙公司（LCP）通过出售其投资组合公司——威斯康星州奶酪制造商Heartisan Foods——大获成功，在这笔由Triago筹集资金的交易中，LCP与Ronin合作。通过斯温的关系，LCP已授予华利安两项委托，一项是为一家投资组合公司进行债务融资，另一项是探索出售事宜。
今年早些时候，直接交易业务为Seven Point筹集了7500万美元的股权和债务资金，用于收购军用飞机结构部件制造商Frazier Aviation。现在，Seven Point正在认真考虑聘请华利安为其投资组合资产提供按市值计价的估值分析，以提交给投资者。
回报也是双向的。专注于航空航天和国防领域的私募股权发起人Liberty Hall是华利安的长期客户，并在收购前聘请Triago牵头一个存续基金。这次合作进一步加深了其与华利安的关系。Liberty Hall聘请华利安为今年早些时候完成的一笔经典直接交易筹集资金。在存续基金和直接交易之间，华利安为Liberty确保了2.5亿美元资金。它还在与华利安的并购团队合作，寻求新的收购。
兰登家族办公室负责人埃迪斯（已故叱咤风云的亿万富翁蒂莫西·兰登（Timothy Landon）的门生，蒂莫西·兰登作为其军校同窗、阿曼苏丹的首席政治顾问而传奇）指出，斯温给华利安带来了额外优势。“马特在向上销售华利安的其他服务方面至关重要。随着投资经历其生命周期，它们需要并购、债务再融资以及为最终出售寻找买家，对于马特旗下的公司来说，很自然的事情就是让华利安承担这项工作，”埃迪斯说。“我们正与华利安进行一项新的再融资，就是因为这个由马特开启的周期。”
2025年4月，公司晋升斯温为股权资本解决方案联席主管。该部门是更广泛的资本解决方案集团的一部分，涵盖股权和债务融资业务；据华尔街消息人士称，该集团每年产生4亿至5亿美元的收入——相当于公司在3月结束的2025财年24亿美元营收的四分之一。
斯温负责的部门利润非常丰厚。据行业消息来源，《财富》估计，按年化计算，三个直接交易领域——传统类型、存续基金和联合投资——合计每年筹资额远超50亿美元。通过研究这个高度分散的行业，《财富》得出结论，华利安在传统直接交易和存续基金的综合领域处于领先地位；仅就直接交易而言，其市场份额约为10%。
对斯温而言，直接交易的兴起预示着世界金融市场的一场革命。“未来，越来越多的机构投资者，如养老基金和捐赠基金，将效仿家族办公室购买单个公司，就像投资者挑选股票一样。他们将不再投资于基金池，而是直接投资于公司股权，”他宣称。“换句话说，直接交易将使公司的私募市场流动性大大提高，使其看起来像股票的公开市场。”斯温预测，十年内，三类直接交易的总规模每年吸引的新资金量将与当今传统私募股权相当。
文图拉县雇员退休协会（VCERA）已启动一项计划，今年将在直接交易联合投资上投入高达2000万美元，而得克萨斯州市政退休系统（TMRS）计划在未来五年内投入高达150亿美元，为私募股权基金中的个别持仓增加额外的增长资本。“大型养老基金正在转向中低端市场和中端市场的较小管理机构，因为那是他们看到最高回报的地方，”一位私募股权行业的领先投资顾问表示。
斯温的私募股权客户称赞他在识别最有前途交易方面的分析能力。“他在我们作为发起人的Frazier Aviation交易上做了深入的尽职调查，”Seven Point的伯奇尔回忆道。“当马特站在投资者面前说这会是一笔好交易时，他们会听他的。他的信誉帮助我们能够选择投资者。”
这位天之骄子已经发展出自己高度独创的盈利之道——即使在曼哈顿街头，你也绝不会看到他在出租车里。“无论天气多热或多冷，马特都会说，‘我们走路吧。这样更利于社交，'“霍茨惊叹道。九月的一天，本文作者与斯温一同沿着公园大道漫步，恰巧他遇到了私募股权公司Finback的负责人杰克·奥利弗（Jack Oliver），旁边还有前佛罗里达州州长杰布·布什（Jeb Bush）。私募股权界两位最重量级的人物举行了他们自己的小型路边峰会，商讨如何就交易进行合作。后来我问超级有魅力的奥利弗，他或斯温谁更有吸引力。奥利弗机敏地回答：“我得说我的个性更张扬。但他更成功。”有一点是肯定的，在这个靠关系兴旺的行业里，斯温永远不会停止在房间里、在街区里、在岛上、在全世界活动，将财力雄厚的投资者吸引到他在华尔街的角落。（*）
译者：王芳
审校：梁宇
2023年8月，马特·斯温（Matt Swain）刚升任Triago公司首席执行官，便收到了五份收购要约。他在私募股权一个名为“直接交易”的冷门细分领域打造了利润极高的业务——核心是为有意出售的稳健运营企业匹配寻求超额回报的家族办公室。如今，竞购方纷至沓来，包括西班牙和韩国的顶级银行、一家美国领先的私募股权公司、一家中西部大型贷款机构以及一家亚洲大型贸易公司。
然而在斯温权衡这些要约时，有一份脱颖而出——来自中型市场投行巨头华利安（Houlihan Lokey）的企业融资主席兼并购主管鲍勃·霍茨（Bob Hotz）。斯温确信华利安是他和团队的最佳归宿。因此，当他收到霍茨的邮件时倍感沮丧。霍茨写道：“我们遗憾地退出对Triago的收购考虑，”但同时指出，“您是我们感兴趣的主要原因”，并礼貌地提议次日上午9点20分简短喝杯咖啡。
斯温没抱太大期望。“我穿乐福鞋都没配袜子。任何随意、无关紧要的会面我都不穿袜子，”他回忆道，“我只想听听资深人士鲍勃的建议，看该选哪份要约。”早餐时，这位精力充沛的年轻人向比他年长半个世纪、银发温和的霍茨请教。“时间有限，我语速飞快，连平时常吃的牛油果吐司都没碰。我问鲍勃：‘哪个最合适？'结果鲍勃态度完全反转，说：‘我认为我们才是最佳合作伙伴。'”
8月30日（周三）晚11点，霍茨致电斯温，宣布决定收购——但条件是斯温必须在劳动节周末的周日离开他在楠塔基特岛满是宾客的家，飞赴伦敦进行密集的尽职调查。斯温应允后，带着塞满财务文件的鼓鼓囊囊的滚轮行李箱，登上了飞往希思罗机场的红眼航班。到下周周五，华利安已完成了这场闪电式收购，据称交易额远超1亿美元。
这场“联姻”在华尔街缔造了一支值得关注的力量——一边是精通交易的神奇小子，另一边是你可能从未听闻的中型投行巨头。二十岁出头时，甚至在加入Triago之前，斯温就比华尔街专业人士更早认识到：家族办公室财富的激增意味着他们对收购单个公司而非投资私募股权巨头组建的企业“盲池”抱有浓厚兴趣。
这些家族办公室的创始人通常曾创建并出售自己的公司，他们及其继承者乐于“亲自查验”，而不是让凯雷（Carlyle）或TPG替他们做决定。为满足超级富豪的这种需求，斯温建立了一个由富有冒险精神的“独立发起人”组成的广泛网络——这些运营者获取收购私营中型企业的意向书，业务涵盖从制造常规飞机零部件到以预定价格销售迪士尼品牌纪念品等各种领域。
这种投资者精挑细选自己的交易，而非加入某个私募巨头第七号基金的过程，被称为“直接交易”。它已存在数十年，但在斯温效力Triago的五年间，他证明了自己是推动该领域从冷门走向主流业务的核心人物，并成为该领域的王者。据《财富》基于行业数据的估算，采用对私营公司单笔投资的广义定义，今年所有直接交易的价值将激增至约2000亿美元，是几年前规模的数倍。
然而，“直接交易”要对私募巨头构成任何实质性威胁还有很长的路要走。尽管斯温雄心勃勃，但私募的传统中坚力量——大型养老基金、保险公司和捐赠基金——尚未大规模采用。这些大型机构仍绝大多数选择基金池，这样可以快速投入大量资金，而无需专业团队来解析这些定制化交易。与此同时，成功引来竞争——斯温通过收购并重整廉价、被忽视的中小型公司所获得的丰厚回报正吸引越来越多竞争者，这一趋势可能推高价格并压缩利润。
但似乎没有什么挑战能难倒斯温，他建立了庞大的人脉网，其中包括已故房地产大亨山姆·泽尔（Sam Zell）家族、驻英国大使沃伦·斯蒂芬斯（Warren Stephens）家族的投资部门，以及罗姆尼（Romney）家族和布隆伯格（Bloomberg）家族等众多显赫名字。他证明了自己是筛选顶级发起人和识别那些承诺——并在几年后兑现——超越私募股权巨额回报的投资项目的专家。“在马特之前，我们得自己找独立发起人，这很困难，”管理着140笔直接交易、规模达20亿美元投资组合的Ocean Avenue Capital Partners创始合伙人杜兰·库里斯（Duran Curis）说。“他的巨大贡献在于他为我们找到这些发起人，并呈现最佳机会。”如今，借助华利安的雄厚实力，斯温计划开始向养老基金、捐赠基金和资产管理公司推销。
Ronin Equity Partners联合创始人大卫·费尔斯坦（David Feierstein）补充道，斯温曾为其投资公司筹集数亿美元资金，用于六项收购。“如果没有像马特这样积极进取且魅力超凡的人，直接交易行业绝不可能达到今天的水平。马特拥有先发优势。在直接交易领域，马特是主导者。”
魅力攻势
斯温有些罕见之处：他是一个年轻的智者，却以华尔街老派的方式——在量化交易和Excel模型兴起之前——通过魅力攻势建立业务，编织起竞争对手难以企及的紧密关系网。值得注意的是，这位超级推销员出身于极其优渥的背景。他在康涅狄格州格林威治长大，父亲是一家知名对冲基金的首席财务官。他的祖先是楠塔基特岛的原始所有者。“马特告诉我，他的家族世代都来楠塔基特岛。所以我们步行去买咖啡，路过斯温街，然后是斯温故居，接着我们去捕鲸博物馆，迎面看到他祖先的六幅肖像，”兰登（Landon）家族办公室（旗下包括斯温直接交易的长期投资者兰登资本合伙公司）首席执行官鲁珀特·埃迪斯（Rupert Edis）说。
斯温毕业于科尔盖特大学（Colgate University），在校期间担任学生会主席并是壁球明星——他至今仍是曼哈顿最好的业余选手之一。之后他加入斯迪富（Stifel），在一个为对冲基金募资的“配置顾问”部门工作。经理们惊讶于家族办公室不回复他们的电话，于是指派斯温从一个包含1000个最富裕家族的“失效名单”中寻找潜在客户。这个新人遭遇的大多是拒绝、斥责，甚至还有没挂电话的受访者骂他“你个侏儒！”，但他也从中发现了市场空白。
斯温扮演了媒人的角色。他发现独立发起人IVEST需要资金收购一家名为Dan Dee的毛绒玩具供应商，于是带其负责人去了索拉梅尔（Solamere）家族办公室，该办公室代表罗姆尼家族、前沃尔玛（Walmart）首席执行官李斯阁（Lee Scott）及其他富裕投资者。斯温筹集了1亿美元完成了这笔收购。到2018年，他找到了一个规模刚好够小、胆子够大，愿意尝试他围绕直接交易构建完整业务愿景的地方：Triago，这家由法国人安托万·德雷昂（Antoine Dréan）创立的公司，在一项近亲业务——为寻求出售其在私募股权基金中份额的有限合伙人寻找买家——上做得风生水起。
斯温迅速将直接交易变成了Triago的利润驱动力。三年间，他为35笔交易筹集了30亿美元股权资本，加上债务融资，支持的收购总额超过100亿美元。2022年4月，德雷昂任命这位27岁的后起之秀为首席执行官。
大型私募股权基金通常在较长持有期内为投资者带来两倍回报，而直接交易的目标远高于此。“我们的投资者期望获得三倍或以上的回报，”与斯温广泛合作的Castle Harlan公司董事总经理帕特里克·齐拉（Patrick Zyla）表示。
常规私募基金以每年对投资者所有资金收取约2%的费用而闻名，无论这些资金是否已投入使用。直接交易的发起人通常根本不收取任何费用，而且更妙的是，除非他们取得巨大成功，否则拿不到报酬。行业巨头通常在出售公司时获得固定的20%利润分成（即“绩效收益”）。但直接交易的结构通常是，发起人在达到2倍回报基准前分文不取。超过这个数字后，他们开始收取20%的分成，但随着返还投资者本金的倍数增加，他们的分成比例急剧上升。如果发起人-管理者达到5倍回报，他们可以拿走高达40%的收益。
山姆·泽尔（Sam Zell）及其团队为斯温的多项交易提供了资金，他非常喜欢直接交易这种极度的“利益共享”特性。（斯温提到，泽尔喜欢和这个年轻人合影，因为斯温只比这位已故的矮个子大亨略高一点。）泽尔及其家族办公室EGI的总裁马克·索蒂尔（Mark Sotir）会推动斯温安排那些提高利润分成门槛，但在取得惊人业绩时给予管理团队更高回报的交易。
鉴于私募股权退出渠道急剧萎缩，这使得华利安目前的定位尤为吸引人：据代表养老基金进行投资的汉领资本（Hamilton Lane）称，截至2021年，私募股权公司在收购五年后仍持有其收购交易的45%；去年，约有65%的交易在五年后仍未售出。
与此同时，斯温的模式以速度取胜。直接交易中，资金到位快，费用收取也快。代表私募股权公司的配置顾问通常需要9到18个月才能募完一只基金。但一旦斯温团队获得发起人的委托，他和他的银行家们通常在8到9周内就能完成巡回推介并确保资金到位。他的40人团队还专注于规模越来越大的交易，这提高了他们从平均直接交易中获得的收益。今年，他预计完成约12笔交易，平均企业价值在2亿至4亿美元之间。“这远远超过行业平均水平，”他声称。“我们正在处理一笔价值20亿美元的交易，而且这个数字还会继续攀升。”
延长的持有时间以及有限合伙人对流动性的渴望，应会特别有利于斯温和华利安设想的超越传统直接交易的第一个重大扩展领域：即所谓的存续基金（CVs）。在这种模式下，基金标记出一个前景光明的杰出公司，并在退出其他投资时不想出售它。如今，Evercore是最大的参与者，但华利安正在崛起。存续基金以良好回报让该明星“保留资产”中的大多数现有有限合伙人套现退出，并用一批新的投资者取代他们，这些新投资者认为通过再持有并发展这家杰出公司三四年将会带来巨大收益。该公司从基金中剥离出来，作为独立实体继续运营。新来者再次进行“直接”投资，因为他们是在逐笔交易的基础上进行采购。
第二个分支是所谓的“联合投资”。私募股权公司日益寻求在原始投资者对特定基金的出资之外筹集更多资金。例如，基金经理看到一家软件供应商正以低价出售，想将其加入科技投资组合。或者对任何单一收购的“集中度限制”是3亿美元，而他们不愿错过一个价值4.5亿美元的完美标的。或者目标可能是完成一次大型附加收购，或通过新建工厂来满足未预见到的销售激增。在所有这些情况下，基金可能缺乏抓住机会的资金。它可能金库里还有3亿美元，但还需要再筹集几亿美元。
斯温和华利安团队认为这个尚处于萌芽阶段的领域是募资和投行业务的巨大利润来源。这对基金有限合伙人来说很划算，因为他们无需为额外资本支付费用或绩效收益。新投资者支付的绩效收益与业绩紧密挂钩：起始比例较低，并根据实现的利润水平上升。这种安排使联合投资者能够挑选自己的个别交易，这正是直接交易的一大吸引力。
这些机会不再主要来自斯温过去代表的小型发起人，而是源自大型、成熟的私募机构，这些机构已运营这些候选项目多年，并且无论在联合投资资产还是公司整体业绩方面都能展示出令人印象深刻的历史记录。这种认可极大地提升了它们的吸引力。
“每天每分钟都在想着商业”
在华利安，斯温坚持着他标志性的、马不停蹄的社交圆舞曲。他的大部分业务都在曼哈顿中城五个街区的半径内进行。他住在公园大道一栋摩尔风格的高层建筑里，从埃里克·特朗普（Eric Trump）那里租了一套公寓；伊万卡·特朗普（Ivanka Trump）是他的邻居。斯温主要在附近两家餐馆进行主要的交易洽谈：高档法式餐厅Le Bilboquet和Loews Regency Bar & Grill。“我在Loews连轴转吃早餐，然后在Bilboquet吃午餐，”他坦言。“晚上则分三步曲。先在Bilboquet喝杯鸡尾酒，然后是一顿正餐，接着是边喝酒边长谈。30岁之前，会持续到午夜。现在我30岁了，11点或午夜前结束。”为了提高效率，新客人一到，斯温就会换桌子，即使旧客人还坐在那里。私募股权公司Seven Point的管理合伙人汤姆·伯奇尔（Tom Burchill）指出：“他从一极弹到另一极。有一次，我在Bilboquet占用了他45分钟。算我走运。”在楠塔基特岛时，斯温会驾驶一种硬底、海豹突击队风格的超高速橡皮艇在岛上疾驰，这种艇曾被乌克兰军队使用。他特意进口了它，这笔钱给了那家希望为陷入困境的国家支持就业的制造商。
他的商业伙伴认为他既轻松迷人，又醉心事业。“马特每天每分钟都在想着商业，”被斯温尊称为“鲍勃叔叔”的霍茨评论道。科技私募股权公司NewSpring Capital的管理普通合伙人迈克·迪皮亚诺（Mike DiPiano）补充说：“他是个无时无刻不在推销的年轻人。”他吸引顶尖年长名人的能力非凡。”他年纪轻轻却有着老成的灵魂，而且这很有感染力，”斯蒂芬斯（Stephens）家族办公室的凯文·威尔科克斯（Kevin Wilcox）说。兰登家族办公室的埃迪斯赞扬斯温”吸引有权势的导师和盟友”的诀窍，并称他迅速完成任务的能力为“拿破仑式”——顺便说一句，斯温身高5英尺8英寸，中等身材，就像他营销的公司一样。
尽管华利安在18个月前收购了Triago，但双方都已为对方带来巨大利益。令人惊讶的是，这家公司如此不为人知。华利安是全球中型私营企业的最大投行。过去十年间，它也是华尔街回报投资者的佼佼者，而且领先幅度很大。在此期间，其年化股东总回报率达到26.4%，超过了拉扎德（Lazard，5.9%）、杰富瑞（Jefferies，13.2%）、Moelis（17.2%）和Evercore（22%）等同行精品投行，同时也超越了花旗集团（Citigroup，9.3%）、美国银行（Bank of America，14.5%）、高盛（Goldman Sachs，18.0%）、摩根士丹利（Morgan Stanley，19.9%）和摩根大通（J.P. Morgan，20.3%）等巨头。早在2015年秋，华利安的市值还落后于杰富瑞、拉扎德和Evercore。如今其市值达136亿美元，已超过这三家的总和。
新合并公司协同效应的一个主要优势是：源自华利安私募股权客户的直接交易、基金投资、存续基金和联合投资。2023年，由前巴克莱（Barclays）首席执行官鲍勃·戴蒙德（Bob Diamond）领导的对冲基金与私募股权混合基金Atlas Merchant Capital，聘请华利安担任其顾问，为保险经纪领域领先平台MarshBerry进行了一笔重要的基金投资。戴蒙德是斯温的粉丝，曾是Triago的竞购者之一。既然斯温已加入华利安，戴蒙德正在基金投资和直接交易两方面给予该公司业务；他最近聘请斯温团队为Atlas的投资组合公司获取后续资本。
存续基金的人脉也在为华利安带来咨询费。去年十月，斯温为私募股权基金NewSpring筹集了资金，该基金以在2000年代收购Nutrisystem大获成功而闻名，这次是为一个合并了其两个明星投资组合资产的工具筹资。“你意识到，如果能持有这些投资更久，你会从中获得更多，”联合创始人迪皮亚诺说。通过各种电话沟通，华利安向家族办公室投资者提供了投资银行指导，分析交易的利弊。
在联合投资方面，规模140亿美元的私募股权公司Riverside，作为华利安多年的客户但从未与Triago合作过，正在寻求额外的联合投资股权，以此吸引新的有限合伙人并完成两项新投资。通过华利安的关系，斯温团队介入了。“我们短时间内被介绍给几十家有限合伙人，并获得了其中多家的投资，”该公司管理合伙人佩吉·罗伯茨（Peggy Roberts）说。“与华利安合作帮助我们与不会遇到的公司建立了持续的关系。”
过去九个月，华利安为斯温的忠实客户Ronin筹集了超过5亿美元，用于确保三笔收购。六月，斯温团队为Ronin提供了资金，用于收购一家维修和检修商用飞机系统的公司。华利安代表家族办公室投资者进行了分析。四月，兰登资本合伙公司（LCP）通过出售其投资组合公司——威斯康星州奶酪制造商Heartisan Foods——大获成功，在这笔由Triago筹集资金的交易中，LCP与Ronin合作。通过斯温的关系，LCP已授予华利安两项委托，一项是为一家投资组合公司进行债务融资，另一项是探索出售事宜。
今年早些时候，直接交易业务为Seven Point筹集了7500万美元的股权和债务资金，用于收购军用飞机结构部件制造商Frazier Aviation。现在，Seven Point正在认真考虑聘请华利安为其投资组合资产提供按市值计价的估值分析，以提交给投资者。
回报也是双向的。专注于航空航天和国防领域的私募股权发起人Liberty Hall是华利安的长期客户，并在收购前聘请Triago牵头一个存续基金。这次合作进一步加深了其与华利安的关系。Liberty Hall聘请华利安为今年早些时候完成的一笔经典直接交易筹集资金。在存续基金和直接交易之间，华利安为Liberty确保了2.5亿美元资金。它还在与华利安的并购团队合作，寻求新的收购。
兰登家族办公室负责人埃迪斯（已故叱咤风云的亿万富翁蒂莫西·兰登（Timothy Landon）的门生，蒂莫西·兰登作为其军校同窗、阿曼苏丹的首席政治顾问而传奇）指出，斯温给华利安带来了额外优势。“马特在向上销售华利安的其他服务方面至关重要。随着投资经历其生命周期，它们需要并购、债务再融资以及为最终出售寻找买家，对于马特旗下的公司来说，很自然的事情就是让华利安承担这项工作，”埃迪斯说。“我们正与华利安进行一项新的再融资，就是因为这个由马特开启的周期。”
2025年4月，公司晋升斯温为股权资本解决方案联席主管。该部门是更广泛的资本解决方案集团的一部分，涵盖股权和债务融资业务；据华尔街消息人士称，该集团每年产生4亿至5亿美元的收入——相当于公司在3月结束的2025财年24亿美元营收的四分之一。
斯温负责的部门利润非常丰厚。据行业消息来源，《财富》估计，按年化计算，三个直接交易领域——传统类型、存续基金和联合投资——合计每年筹资额远超50亿美元。通过研究这个高度分散的行业，《财富》得出结论，华利安在传统直接交易和存续基金的综合领域处于领先地位；仅就直接交易而言，其市场份额约为10%。
对斯温而言，直接交易的兴起预示着世界金融市场的一场革命。“未来，越来越多的机构投资者，如养老基金和捐赠基金，将效仿家族办公室购买单个公司，就像投资者挑选股票一样。他们将不再投资于基金池，而是直接投资于公司股权，”他宣称。“换句话说，直接交易将使公司的私募市场流动性大大提高，使其看起来像股票的公开市场。”斯温预测，十年内，三类直接交易的总规模每年吸引的新资金量将与当今传统私募股权相当。
文图拉县雇员退休协会（VCERA）已启动一项计划，今年将在直接交易联合投资上投入高达2000万美元，而得克萨斯州市政退休系统（TMRS）计划在未来五年内投入高达150亿美元，为私募股权基金中的个别持仓增加额外的增长资本。“大型养老基金正在转向中低端市场和中端市场的较小管理机构，因为那是他们看到最高回报的地方，”一位私募股权行业的领先投资顾问表示。
斯温的私募股权客户称赞他在识别最有前途交易方面的分析能力。“他在我们作为发起人的Frazier Aviation交易上做了深入的尽职调查，”Seven Point的伯奇尔回忆道。“当马特站在投资者面前说这会是一笔好交易时，他们会听他的。他的信誉帮助我们能够选择投资者。”
这位天之骄子已经发展出自己高度独创的盈利之道——即使在曼哈顿街头，你也绝不会看到他在出租车里。“无论天气多热或多冷，马特都会说，‘我们走路吧。这样更利于社交，'“霍茨惊叹道。九月的一天，本文作者与斯温一同沿着公园大道漫步，恰巧他遇到了私募股权公司Finback的负责人杰克·奥利弗（Jack Oliver），旁边还有前佛罗里达州州长杰布·布什（Jeb Bush）。私募股权界两位最重量级的人物举行了他们自己的小型路边峰会，商讨如何就交易进行合作。后来我问超级有魅力的奥利弗，他或斯温谁更有吸引力。奥利弗机敏地回答：“我得说我的个性更张扬。但他更成功。”有一点是肯定的，在这个靠关系兴旺的行业里，斯温永远不会停止在房间里、在街区里、在岛上、在全世界活动，将财力雄厚的投资者吸引到他在华尔街的角落。（*）
译者：王芳
审校：梁宇
It was August 2023, and Matt Swain had five offers on the table for Triago, the company where he'd recently ascended to CEO. He'd built the mightily profitable franchise in an obscure corner of private equity called “directs”—essentially pairing solidly run businesses that wanted to sell, with family offices looking for outsize returns. Now, suitors comprising top banks from Spain and Korea, a leading U.S. private equity firm, a major Midwestern lender, and a giant Asian trading house were circling.
But as Swain weighed the offers, one stood out—from Bob Hotz, chairman of corporate finance and acquisitions chief at mid-market investment banking powerhouse Houlihan Lokey. He felt sure that Houlihan would provide the best home for himself and his team. So he was crushed when an email arrived: “We regrettably will withdraw from considering the purchase of Triago,” wrote Hotz, but noted, “You were the primary reason for our interest,” and graciously suggested they meet for a quick coffee at 9:20 the next morning.
Swain didn't expect much. “I didn't even wear socks with my loafers. I never wear socks at any casual, inconsequential meeting,” he recalls. “I just wanted to get veteran Bob's advice on which offer to pick.” At breakfast, the hyperkinetic youngster quizzed the silver-coiffed, soft-spoken Hotz, who's a half-century his senior. “Given the time limit, I was talking so fast I didn't even touch my usual avocado toast. I asked Bob: 'Which one is the right fit?' And Bob does a total flip, and says, 'I think we're the best partner.'“
At 11 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 30, Hotz called Swain to declare he was in—but only on the condition that Swain leave his house full of guests on Nantucket and fly to London the Sunday of Labor Day weekend for a rapid-fire session of due diligence. Swain agreed and boarded the red-eye to Heathrow toting a bulging roller suitcase packed full of financials. By the following Friday, Houlihan Lokey had clinched the whirlwind purchase, reportedly for well over $100 million.
The marriage created a force to watch on Wall Street, between a whiz kid with a knack for dealmaking, and the giant mid-tier investment bank you've probably never heard of. In his early twenties, even before joining Triago, Swain beat the Wall Street pros in recognizing that the burgeoning wealth of family offices meant there was high interest in purchasing individual companies, rather than investing in “blind pools” of enterprises assembled by the private equity (PE) giants.
The founders of those family offices had often built and sold their own companies, and they and their heirs relished “kicking the tires,” instead of having a Carlyle or TPG decide for them. To satisfy that appetite among the super-wealthy, Swain developed a wide network of venturesome “independent sponsors,” operators that obtained letters of intent to purchase private, midsize businesses that did everything from making routine airplane parts to marketing Disney-branded souvenirs at a predetermined price.
That process where investors cherry-pick their own deals rather than, say, joining fund No. 7 of a PE colossus, is called “directs.” It's existed for decades, but in his five years at Triago, Swain has proved the prime mover in taking the sector from backwater to big business, and became king of the realm. By Fortune's estimates, drawn from industry data, the value of all direct deals, using the broad definition of single investments in private companies, will explode to something like $200 billion this year, multiple the number several years ago.
Still, “directs” have a way to go before they pose any sort of real threat to the PE giants. Though Swain has big plans, there has yet to be mass adoption by the traditional stalwarts of PE—the big pension funds, insurers, and endowments. Those huge institutions still overwhelmingly choose pools, where they can put tons of money to work quickly without specialized teams needed to parse these bespoke deals. Meanwhile success attracts competition—and Swain's fat returns (garnered by buying and fixing cheap, overlooked, small and midsize companies) are attracting more and more competitors, a trend that could hike prices and reduce profits.
But no challenges seem to faze Swain, who has developed a vast Rolodex featuring the investment arms for the clans of late real estate magnate Sam Zell and ambassador to the U.K. Warren Stephens, plus the Romneys and Bloombergs, among a panoply of luminary names. He proved an expert at curating a cast of top sponsors and identifying the investments that promised—and a few years later delivered—big, PE-beating returns. “Pre-Matt, we had to find the independent sponsors, and it was difficult,” says Duran Curis, founding partner at Ocean Avenue Capital Partners, who manages a $2 billion portfolio of 140 directs. “His big contribution is that he finds them for us, and presents the best opportunities.” Now, paired with the muscle of Houlihan Lokey, Swain has big plans to start selling to pension funds, endowments, and asset managers.
Adds David Feierstein, cofounder of Ronin Equity Partners, an investment firm for which Swain's raised several hundred million dollars to fund half a dozen purchases, “If you didn't have someone as aggressive and charismatic as Matt, the directs industry wouldn't be nearly where it is today. Matt had the first mover advantage. In directs, Matt runs the show.”
The charm offensive
There's something rare about Swain, who is a young brainiac, but one who has built his business the old-fashioned, pre-quant-trading and Excel models Wall Street way, via charm offensives that weave webs of tight relationships few rivals can match. It's remarkable that this super-hustler comes from a highly privileged background. He grew up in Greenwich, Conn., son of the CFO of a prominent hedge fund. His ancestors were the original owners of Nantucket island. “Matt tells me his family had been coming to Nantucket for generations. So we're walking to get coffee and we pass Swain Street, then Swain House, then we go to the Whaling Museum and get greeted by half a dozen portraits of his forbears,” says Rupert Edis, CEO of the Landon family office that includes Landon Capital Partners, a long-standing investor in Swain's directs.
After graduating from Colgate University, where he served as student body president and starred in squash—he's still one of the best amateur players in Manhattan—Swain joined Stifel, in a “placement agent” unit that raised money for hedge funds. The managers were amazed that family offices weren't returning their calls, so they assigned Swain to find takers from a “ list” of 1,000 mostly wealthy clans. The green recruit got mostly noes, upbraidings, and even a “You're a midget!” from the respondents who didn't hang up, but he also learned there was a gap in the market.
Swain played matchmaker. He found that independent sponsor IVEST needed funding for a plush toy purveyor called Dan Dee, and brought their leaders to Solamere, the family office representing the Romneys, former Walmart CEO Lee Scott, and other wealthy investors. Swain raised $100 million to notch the purchase. By 2018, he found a spot that was just small and daring enough to take a flier on his vision of building a whole business around directs: Triago, the firm founded by Frenchman Antoine Dréan that did a thriving trade in a close cousin, finding buyers for limited partners (LPs) that sought to sell their stakes in private equity pools.
Swain quickly turned directs into Triago's profit driver. Over three years, he raised $3 billion in equity capital for 35 deals that, including debt, backed over $10 billion in purchases. In April 2022, Dréan named his 27-year old comer as CEO.
While Big PE typically delivers twofold returns to investors over a longer holding period, directs aim far higher. “Our investors are looking for returns of 3x or more,” says Patrick Zyla, managing director of Castle Harlan, a firm that Swain has worked with extensively.
Regular PE funds famously charge around 2% a year on all investors' funds, whether or not they've been put to work yet. The directs sponsors typically don't charge any fees at all, and even better, don't get paid unless they deliver big-time. The industry's giants usually get a fixed “carry” of 20% of profits when companies are sold. But directs deals are usually structured so that the sponsors garner zip until they hit a 2x bogey. Over that number, they start collecting 20%, but their take accelerates sharply with each multiple of their investors' stake they return. If the sponsor-managers hit 5x, they can pocket as much as 40% of the gain.
“If you didn't have someone as aggressive and charismatic as Matt, the directs industry wouldn't be nearly where it is today.”David Feierstein, cofounder of Ronin Equity Partners
Sam Zell, who along with his team funded a number of Swain's deals, absolutely loved this ultra-”skin in the game” aspect of directs. (Swain relates that Zell liked having his photo snapped alongside the youngster, as Swain was only slightly taller than the late bantam tycoon.) Zell and the president of the Zell family office EGI, Mark Sotir, would push Swain to arrange transactions that raised the bar for capturing a share of the profits, but gave the management teams an even bigger score for fabulous results.
That makes Houlihan Lokey's pitch particularly appealing right now, given that PE has seen a sharp drop-off in exits: According to Hamilton Lane, a firm that invests on behalf of pension funds, as of 2021 PE firms were still holding 45% of their buyout deals five years following their purchase; last year, around 65% were still sitting unsold after a half-decade.
Meanwhile Swain's model thrives on speed. With directs, the money comes fast, and so do the fees. It typically takes placement agents working on behalf of PE firms nine to 18 months to raise a full fund. But once the Swain gang gets a mandate from a sponsor, he and his bankers regularly make the rounds and secure the funding in eight to nine weeks. His team of 40 also concentrates on bigger and bigger deals that swell their take from the average directs transaction. This year, he expects to do around a dozen deals at an average enterprise value of $200 million to $400 million. “That's much, much bigger than the average in the industry,” he avows. “We're now working on one worth $2 billion, and the numbers will keep climbing.”
That expanded holding time, and LP thirst for liquidity, should especially benefit the first field where Swain and Houlihan Lokey envisage big expansion beyond traditional directs: so-called continuation vehicles, or CVs, where a fund tags an outstanding company promising great things, and doesn't want to sell as it exits the other holdings. Today, Evercore is the biggest player, but Houlihan is rising. CVs cash out most of the existing LPs in that star “keeper” at a good return, and replace them with a fresh crop that sees big gains ahead by keeping and growing the standout for another, say, three or four years. The company spins off from the fund and continues as a stand-alone. The newcomers are once again going “direct” since they're shopping on a deal-by-deal basis.
The second offshoot is what's known as “co-investment.” PE firms increasingly seek to raise money beyond what the original investors contributed to a given fund. Say the managers see a software provider on the block at a bargain price, and want to add it to a tech portfolio. Or the “concentration limit” on any one purchase is $300 million, and they'd hate to miss out on a perfect fit at $450 million. Or the goal may be clinching a big add-on acquisition, or satisfying an unforeseen surge in sales by constructing new plants. In all those cases, the fund may lack the capital for seizing the opportunity. It may have $300 million still in its coffers and need a couple of hundred million more.
Swain and the Houlihan Lokey team view the area, still in its infancy, as a huge field for lucrative fundraising and investment-banking business. It's a good deal for the fund LPs because they pay no fee or carry on the additional capital. The new investors pay carry at a rate that's closely tied to performance: The percentage starts low and rises depending on the level of profit achieved. The arrangement empowers the co-investors to pick and choose their own individual deals, the great lure of directs in general.
Instead of coming from the small sponsors that Swain has mainly represented in the past, these opportunities are flowing from big, established PE outfits that have run these candidates for years, and can show impressive track records, both for the co-invest property and the firm's overall performance. That imprimatur greatly heightens their appeal.
'A commercial thought every minute of every day'
At Houlihan Lokey, Swain persists in the headlong roundelay of networking that's his calling card. He does most of his business in a five-block radius of Midtown Manhattan. He resides in a Moorish-themed Park Avenue high-rise, where he rents an apartment from Eric Trump; Ivanka Trump is his neighbor. Swain does his primary dealmaking at two nearby eateries, tony French venue Le Bilboquet and the Loews Regency Bar & Grill. “I do back to back breakfasts at Loews, then a lunch at Bilboquet,” he avows. “Then in the evening it's three chapters. First a cocktail at Bilboquet, then a real dinner, then an elongated catch-up over drinks. Before I hit 30, it would stop at midnight. Now that I'm 30, it's over by 11 or midnight.” In the interests of efficiency, Swain changes tables when the new guest arrives, even if the old guest is still sitting there. Notes Tom Burchill, managing partner of PE firm Seven Point: “He bounces from one pole to another. Once, I got him for 45 minutes at Bilboquet. Lucky me.” When on Nantucket, Swain zooms around the island in a hard-bottom, Navy SEAL--style, super-high-speed raft, a type deployed by the military in Ukraine. He had it imported, and the money went to a manufacturer looking to support jobs in the beleaguered nation.
His business associates view him as both blithely charming and, in a word, obsessed. “Matt thinks a commercial thought every minute of every day,” observes Hotz, whom Swain reveres as “Uncle Bob.” Adds Mike DiPiano, managing general partner at tech PE firm NewSpring Capital: “He's a young man selling at all times.” His ability to attract top older notables is remarkable. “He's got this old soul for a young guy, and it's infectious,” says Kevin Wilcox of the Stephens family office. Edis, of the Landon family office, praises Swain's knack for “attracting powerful mentors and allies” and calls his ability to accomplish tasks in a jiffy as “Napoleonic”—at 5-foot-8, by the way, Swain is midsize, like the companies he markets.
Though Houlihan Lokey bought Triago 18 months ago, each side is already bringing the other big benefits. It's astounding that the firm is so little known. Houlihan ranks as the world's largest investment bank for midsize private companies. It's also been the top performer on Wall Street for rewarding investors over the past decade, and by a lot. In that span, it's delivered total shareholder returns of 26.4% a year, beating such fellow boutiques as Lazard (5.9%), Jefferies (13.2%), Moelis (17.2%), and Evercore (22%), while also waxing big guys Citigroup (9.3%), Bank of America (14.5%), Goldman Sachs (18.0%), Morgan Stanley (19.9%), and J.P. Morgan (20.3%). Back in the fall of 2015, Houlihan's market cap trailed those of Jefferies, Lazard, and Evercore. Now at $13.6 billion, it's bigger than all three.
A major plus in terms of the synergy at the newly combined company: the directs investment, fund investment, CVs, and co-investments originating from Houlihan Lokey's PE clients. In 2023 Atlas Merchant Capital, a combined hedge and PE fund headed by former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond, worked with Houlihan as its advisor to MarshBerry, in a significant fund investment for that leading platform in the insurance brokerage space. Diamond is a Swain fan and was one of the Triago bidders. Now that Swain has joined Houlihan, Diamond is giving the firm business on both the fund investment and directs sides; he's recently engaged the Swain team on securing follow-on capital for Atlas portfolio companies.
The CV connection is also spouting advisory fees for Houlihan Lokey. Last October, Swain raised the money for PE fund NewSpring, renowned for scoring big from buying Nutrisystem in the 2000s, for a vehicle that combined two of its star portfolio holdings. “You realize that if you could just hold these investments longer you'll get much more out of them,” says cofounder DiPiano. Over sundry phone calls, Houlihan provided investment banking guidance to the family office investors, parsing the transactions' pros and cons.
In co-invests, Riverside, a $14 billion PE firm that had been a Houlihan Lokey client for years but never worked with Triago, was seeking additional co-investment equity as a way to attract new limited partners and close on two fresh investments. Via the Houlihan connection, in stepped the Swain team. “We were introduced to dozens of LPs in short order, and secured investments from a number of them,” says Peggy Roberts, a managing partner at the firm. “Partnering with Houlihan has helped us forge sustained relationships with firms we would not have met otherwise.”
In the past nine months, Houlihan has raised over $500 million to secure three purchases for Swain's stalwart customer Ronin. In June, the Swain contingent provided Ronin the funding to buy a company that repairs and overhauls systems for commercial aircraft. Houlihan conducted analysis on behalf of the family office investors. In April, Landon Capital Partners (LCP) scored a big hit via the sale of its portfolio holding, Wisconsin cheesemaker Heartisan Foods, where it partnered with Ronin on a deal in which Triago had raised the money. Through the Swain link, LCP has awarded Houlihan two mandates, one for a debt financing of a portfolio company, and another to explore a sale.
Early this year, the directs franchise collected $75 million in equity and debt for Seven Point to buy Frazier Aviation, producer of structural parts for military aircraft. Now, Seven Point is strongly considering Houlihan Lokey to provide the mark-to-market valuation analysis of its portfolio holdings to deliver to investors.
The rewards also go the other way. Liberty Hall, a PE sponsor focused exclusively on aerospace and defense, is a long-standing Houlihan Lokey client, and had hired Triago before the acquisition to lead a CV. The tie-up has further deepened its Houlihan relationship. Liberty Hall hired Houlihan to raise the capital for a classic direct that closed earlier this year. Between the CV and direct, Houlihan secured $250 million for Liberty. It's also working with the Houlihan M&A group to seek new purchases.
Edis, chief of the Landon family office and a protégé of its founder, the late swashbuckling billionaire Timothy Landon, who's legendary as the chief political advisor to his military school chum, the sultan of Oman, notes that Swain gives Houlihan Lokey an extra edge. “Matt's been crucial in upselling Houlihan's other services. As investments move through their life cycle, they need M&A, debt refinancing, and finding buyers for the final sale, and the natural thing for one of Matt's companies is for Houlihan to take on that work,” says Edis. “We're doing a new refi with Houlihan because of the cycle that began with Matt.”
In April 2025, the firm promoted Swain to co-head of Equity Capital Solutions. The unit is part of the broader Capital Solutions Group that encompasses both the equity and debt fundraising franchises; according to sources on Wall Street, the group generates $400 million to $500 million a year in revenue—that's as much as a quarter of the $2.4 billion the firm posted in fiscal year 2025, ended in March.
Swain's section is highly lucrative. From industry sources, Fortune estimates that at an annual run rate, the three directs areas combined—the traditional variety, CVs, and co-invests—are raising well over $5 billion a year. From studying this highly fragmented industry, Fortune concludes that Houlihan Lokey leads the field in combined classic directs and CVs; in directs alone, it holds a market share of around 10%.
For Swain, the rise of directs presages nothing less than a revolution in the world's financial markets. “In the future, more and more institutional investors like pension funds and endowments will follow the family offices in buying individual companies, just as investors pick stocks. Instead of investing in a pool, they'll invest directly into a company's equity,” he declares. “In other words, directs will make the private market for companies much more liquid so that it looks like the public market for stocks.” Swain predicts that within a decade, the total size of the three classes of directs will be attracting the same annual volume of new funds as traditional PE commands today.
“In the future, directs will make the private market for companies much more liquid so that it looks like the public market for stocks.”Matt Swain
Already the Ventura County Employees' Retirement Association is launching a program that will spend up to $20 million on directs co-investment this year, and the Texas Municipal Retirement System plans to dedicate as much as $15 billion over the next five years, adding extra growth capital to individual holdings in PE funds. “The large pension funds are migrating to smaller managers in the lower-middle-market and middle-market space because that's where they're seeing the highest returns,” says a leading investment advisor to the PE industry.
Swain's PE customers praise his analytical skills in identifying the most promising deals. “He did intense due diligence on the Frazier Aviation deal, where we're sponsor,” recalls Burchill of Seven Point. “When Matt goes in front of investors and says it will be good, they listen to him. His credibility helped give us our choice of investors.”
The golden child has developed his own highly original approach in trawling for profit—even on the streets of Manhattan, where you'll never find him inside a taxi. “No matter how hot or cold it may be, Matt will say, 'Let's walk. It's better for networking,'“ marvels Hotz. One day in September, this writer joined Swain on one of his excursions down Park Avenue, and on cue, he ran into Jack Oliver, who heads the PE firm Finback, alongside former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Two of the most outsize personas in private equity held their own little curbside summit, rapping on how they might connect on deals. I later asked the super-personable Oliver whether he or Swain is the more magnetic presence. Riposted Oliver: “I'd have to say I have the bigger personality. But he's more successful.” One thing's for sure, in a business that thrives on relationships, Swain will never stop working the room, the block, the island, the world, to bring deep-pocketed investors into his own corner of Wall Street.