Blum Capital Partners, L.P., also known as Blum Capital, is an American

private equity firm A private equity firm is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of startup or operating companies through a variety of loosely affiliated investment strategies including lev ...

headquartered in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

. The firm is focused on

leveraged buyout A leveraged buyout (LBO) is one company's acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money ( leverage) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loa ...

growth capital Growth capital (also called expansion capital and growth equity) is a type of private equity investment, usually a minority investment, in relatively mature companies that are looking for capital to expand or restructure operations, enter new mar ...

and

PIPE Pipe(s), PIPE(S) or piping may refer to: Objects * Pipe (fluid conveyance), a hollow cylinder following certain dimension rules ** Piping, the use of pipes in industry * Smoking pipe ** Tobacco pipe * Half-pipe and quarter pipe, semi-circular ...

investments in small cap and

middle-market companies Authorities provide differing definitions of the middle-market or mid-market companies. While some authorities look to revenue generated by companies to define the middle market, other sources regard either asset size or number of employees as a be ...

. Blum Capital became known for pioneering a hybrid strategy for investing in public companies, combining private equity and strategic block investment.

History

Prior to founding his

eponymous An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

firm, Richard C. Blum worked at Sutro & Co., an

investment management Investment management is the professional asset management of various securities, including shareholdings, bonds, and other assets, such as real estate, to meet specified investment goals for the benefit of investors. Investors may be instit ...

and brokerage company. While working at Sutro & Co., he led a partnership that acquired the struggling Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1967, for $8 million. The Circus was then sold to

Mattel Inc. Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company founded in January 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. The company has presence in 35 countries and territories and sells products in more ...

for $50 million, in 1971. Blum founded Blum Capital in 1975. As of 2011, Blum Capital managed $2.73 billion in stocks and investments. Significant investments for Blum Capital have come from Fair Isaac,

Lenovo Lenovo Group Limited, often shortened to Lenovo ( , ), is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in designing, manufacturing, and marketing consumer electronics, personal computers, software, business solutions, and related se ...

, DHL Airways, and

CB Richard Ellis CBRE Group, Inc. is an American commercial real estate services and investment firm. The abbreviation CBRE stands for Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis. It is the world's largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (based on 2021 reven ...

. In 1994, Blum Capital entered into a joint venture, Newbridge Capital, with

Texas Pacific Group TPG Inc., previously known as Texas Pacific Group and TPG Capital, is an American investment company based in Fort Worth, Texas. The private equity firm is focused on leveraged buyouts and growth capital. TPG manages investment funds in grow ...

and ACON Investments to invest in

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

and

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...

Investments

Following the 2007–08 financial crisis, the firm sustained major financial losses in its real estate investments. Its investment into CB Richard Ellis Group (CBRE)—into which Blum Capital had invested over the previous 30 years, helping to take the company public—decreased by about 37% amid " global economic concerns that impacted real estate markets". In June 2011, Blum Capital had a $1.87 billion stock portfolio, which was decreased 36%, to about $1.19 billion, by November 2011. Six of the firm's seven-largest public stock investments had also lost "at least 22% of their value" in the same five-month period. On October 9, 2012, Wolverine World Wide, Golden Gate Capital and Blum Capital took over Collective Brands. On March 26, 2015, it was announced that Blum Capital and FRHI Hotels & Resorts will acquire 88% of the shares of the Grand del Mar Resort in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

References

External links

"Richard Blum: The man behind URS, next to Sen. Feinstein"
''San Francisco Chronicle'', 2003.

''Bloomberg News''; August 4, 2002.

''The New York Times'', September 29, 2004.

''The New York Times'', May 5, 2004.

External links

Blum Capital
(company website) {{private equity firms Financial services companies established in 1975 Private equity firms of the United States