Cantor Fitzgerald

Alternative Investment Fund Placements

PCG advises on and raises capital for domestic and international alternative investment fund managers focused on a wide range of private equity investment activities, including Buyouts, Debt, Real Estate, Credit, Mezzanine and other alternative strategies.  Our goal is to identify and raise capital for a discreet number of high quality alternative fund sponsors or managers each year.  To that end, we have assembled a team of seasoned professionals with experience in alternative investment fund placements and direct private placements.  Importantly, our team raises capital from investors worldwide, including public and private pension funds, endowments, foundations, banks, insurance companies, family offices, consultants, family offices, high net worth individuals, and sovereign wealth funds.  Cantor’s industry-leading resources and global fundraising infrastructure is designed to lead to superior fundraising results for our clients. 

The key to our success is diligence and selectivity.    Our objective is to raise capital for a select number of the most established and / or promising fund managers out of the hundreds who seek to raise capital.  To select these assignments, we continually assess market conditions and seek feedback from our global institutional investor base regarding their preferences for investments, geographies and appetite for risk.  Ultimately, we seek those fund managers based on a variety of criteria:

• Suitability
• Market
• Strategy
• Target Returns
• Structure
• Team / Quality of Management
• Track record
• Governance
• Transparency
• Competitive Positioning

The key to building long-standing and trusted client relationships is understanding our clients' business goals and capital raising objectives and then working hard to help them achieve them.  A deep understanding of our clients' businesses objectives enables us to serve as a trusted business advisor and to counsel our clients on all aspects of the capital raising process.  We believe that we are a placement and structuring advisor that fund managers and companies should trust with their most important decisions.  Our advice is valued because it is informed, objective and based on our client needs.  Importantly, we believe that our global distribution network is one of the most powerful in the world and is a key differentiator among other private capital advisors.

PCG‘s objective is to deliver focused, senior-level attention; meticulous pre-fundraising planning, strategy and preparation; sound counsel and advise throughout the course of an engagement; continual feedback and consistent project management throughout the fundraising process.  As a private partnership with an entrepreneurial spirit, we identify with our clients’ business challenges today.  Our success is measured by the success of our clients.

PCG offers exceptional alternative investment fund placement and advisory services to fund sponsors and/or managers seeking capital from institutional investors.  We believe that there are four cornerstones to ensuring a successful capital raise, as follows:

1. Understand our client’s business, so that we can help articulate the “strategy” in the marketplace

We work with each client to help them better articulate their strategy to potential investors.  Often, this involves significant time and attention to understanding their prior investments and strategies.  We help our clients craft an investment strategy and business plan that fully delineates their investment thesis. We listen to the market and customize each capital raise to maximize market acceptance. We undertake a review process and pay particular attention to these areas.

• Investment Performance
• Fund Team Composition and Backgrounds
• Fund Strategy
• Market Analysis
• Competition
   

2. Create a global marketing plan

We identify, develop and maintain strong relationships with the most active, influential institutional investors around the globe.  Our global investor base includes the largest and best-known investors worldwide, including public and private pension funds, endowments, foundations, banks, insurance companies, family offices, consultants, family offices, high net worth individuals, and sovereign wealth funds.  For each capital raising assignment, we craft a unique and tailored marketing plan in order to pair institutional investors with our high quality fund sponsors.  Our objective is to create an efficient marketing process to minimize the time it takes to generate a successful capital raise.

3. Assist the client in structuring the fund

We focus on a variety of areas:

• Alignment of Interests
    
  • Preferred Return
  • Carried Interest
  • Waterfall Structure (portfolio vs. deal-by-deal)
  • Clawback Provision
  • GP Contribution (amount and form)
  • Management and Other Fees
     
• Governance Provisions
  
  
  • Indemnification
  • Supermajority vs. Majority Issues
  • Advisory Board
  • Key Person
  • For Cause Events
  • Removal of GP
     
• Transparency
    
  • Financial Reporting
  • Disclosures
  • Valuation Methodology
  • Carry calculations
  • Fee calculations
  • Waterfall calculations

4. Provide comprehensive capital raising advice and continual feedback throughout the capital raising process

As discussed above, PCG ‘s objective is to deliver focused, senior-level attention; meticulous pre-capital raising planning, strategy and preparation; sound counsel and advise throughout the course of an engagement; continual feedback and consistent project management throughout the capital raising process.  As a private partnership with an entrepreneurial spirit, we identify with our clients’ business challenges today.  Our success is measured by the success of our clients.

Once a General Partner becomes a client, we assign to them a dedicated project management team, which will support the client throughout the review and document preparation process.  Our project management team is supported by our global sales force.  The project team works closely with our global sales team to assist the client in structuring, developing, and packaging its marketing materials to support a successful raise.  Our process is defined by continual senior-level input and client support, from the initial term sheet through execution of definitive documents.  We believe that our assistance results in the clients’ preparation of high-quality materials, which ultimately aids in and facilitates each investor’s understanding of the fund.  We spend considerable time with our clients (up front) to ensure that their offering book, investor presentation, and data site supports the marketing effort.

Alternative Investment Fund Placement Process

We facilitate the Alternative Investment Fund Placement process for our clients throughout each phase (as shown below).  Utilizing our global distribution capabilities, we target a focused group of investors and organize meetings to maximize the effectiveness of management's time.  An orchestrated process increases the momentum of the transaction, thereby increasing the likelihood of success.

Illustrative Example of Typical Fund Process