Opinion

Bain Tech Opportunities makes first fintech bet in HEY, CalPERS CIO Ben Meng resigns, Blackstone to buy Ancestry for $4.7bn

CalPERS CIO Meng quits his post amid questions about his personal investments and Bain invests in a fintech company HEY.

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Morn!

I’ll be fixing my homemade fence around my garden, which collapsed in the storm this week. That’s the extent of our damage here in the Metuchen compound, thank goodness. How did you fare?

Cashless: The pandemic has accelerated the trend of traditional brick and mortar businesses providing online services to stay operational. That theme helped drive Bain Capital’s investment in HEY, an e-commerce and payments company, writes Milana Vinn on PE Hub.

The line between offline and online is blurring. Consider a local coffee shop, a store or a restaurant that were all once entirely offline. The covid-19 environment has forced businesses to go online in an effort to stay alive. For example, more restaurants are going online so that guests can make reservations, Milana writes.
Simply put, the economy is poised for much more integration between the online and offline worlds post-covid, and HEY is uniquely positioned to capitalize on that, according to Darren Abrahamson, a managing director at Bain Capital Tech Opportunities. Read Milana’s story here.

Top Scoops
Well, that was fast. California Public Employees’ Retirement System CIO Ben Meng abruptly resigned yesterday after less than two years for basically undisclosed reasons. A CalPERS press release said he wants to spend more time with family, natch.

The resignation comes amid questions about his personal investments, disclosed in June on CalPERS’ website, and first revealed by scrappy financial blog Naked Capitalism. Those investments include stock in Blackstone Group, Ares Management and Carlyle Group. CalPERS committed $1 billion to Blackstone’s Core Equity Partners II in March, writes Justin Mitchell on Buyouts.

It’s not clear if Meng recused himself on the vote to commit to the Blackstone fund. CalPERS didn’t respond to Justin’s question about this earlier this week. We’ll be updating this story as it develops.
CalPERS deputy CIO Dan Bienvenue will take over on an interim basis as the system searches for a permanent replacement. If you know anything, hit us up at cwitkowsky@buyoutsinsider.com.

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