Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and
Speaker 2: Tim Stenebek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: One of the things that we did notice was Apollo
Speaker 1: Global Management Shares Trading hire today. This is after the
Speaker 1: company posted record annual earnings beat Wall Street estimates as
Speaker 1: higher interest rates powered growth at the credit focused alternative
Speaker 1: asset manager.
Speaker 3: Apollo, though, took a more muted tone than some of
Speaker 3: its peers on the prospect for private equity exits. Principal
Speaker 3: investing income from selling private equity assets will fall below
Speaker 3: the multi year average target of one dollar per share
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty four. That's according to CFO Martin Kelly,
Speaker 3: who said that on the earnings.
Speaker 1: Call, all right, one company we wanted to zoom at
Speaker 1: though for an updead in all things private equity, and
Speaker 1: for that return to Antoindrie, founder and chairman of Tiago.
Speaker 1: It's a placement agent best known for assisting private equity
Speaker 1: firms with fundraising, and since nineteen ninety two, the company
Speaker 1: has raised and advised clients and more than fifty billion
Speaker 1: dollars in capital. We're getting that from its website, but
Speaker 1: we've got the man here in studio here in our
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Interactive Broker studio, Antwine. Nice to have you here.
Speaker 4: How are you?
Speaker 1: Let's start big and broad though. How does the environment
Speaker 1: look this year when it comes to private equity?
Speaker 4: It's we are going back to reality. Right after Q
Speaker 4: zero interest rates, etcetera, etcetera, We're going back to flight
Speaker 4: to quality. Mostly it's obviously tougher out there. It's tougher
Speaker 4: for exits, as you've been saying. It's also tougher on
Speaker 4: the investment side because credit is lacking. So we are,
Speaker 4: I think, going to what I was what private equity
Speaker 4: was in the early nineties, right, adding value to businesses
Speaker 4: and being smart about.
Speaker 1: Investing discrete discretionary of course.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So does private equity thrive in an environment like that?
Speaker 4: Not all of it. Some of it was just you know,
Speaker 4: riding the wave, I guess. And these guys are in
Speaker 4: trouble because things are now tougher for those who know
Speaker 4: their way within the difficult environments. It's obviously great times.
Speaker 4: They can buy great assets at cheaper prices, they can
Speaker 4: have less competition, and they can think about you know,
Speaker 4: great growth bands.
Speaker 3: How are you thinking about using leverage when it comes
Speaker 3: to buyouts right now, just because interest rates are so
Speaker 3: much higher.
Speaker 4: I think it's it's obviously part of the game, you know, leverage.
Speaker 4: It can leverage, can can make people rich. It can
Speaker 4: also hurt or kill. I think you have to use
Speaker 4: it with a lot of you know, skill, and that's
Speaker 4: what most of these guys are doing right now.
Speaker 1: What do you make of though, kind of it's all
Speaker 1: about private credit right now? Do we continue to see
Speaker 1: I feel like, you know, traditional Wall Street is saying, wait,
Speaker 1: I increasingly want a piece of that. How does that
Speaker 1: impact the market? How does that, you know, impact some
Speaker 1: of the conversations that you're having with the clients you
Speaker 1: deal with.
Speaker 4: Most LPs are indeed interested in credit. That I mean,
Speaker 4: you go to them, they don't really want to know
Speaker 4: about private equity or VC growth, et cetera. They're all
Speaker 4: interested in credit. I guess up to a point, at
Speaker 4: some point there will be probably too much available.
Speaker 1: And money tracing too many things.
Speaker 4: Of course, unlike everything, you know, it's supply and demand.
Speaker 4: And when there's a you know, too much supply and
Speaker 4: not enough demand, you're in. You're in. You're in, You're
Speaker 4: in trouble. Does it.
Speaker 1: When you say trouble, though, does it mean that it
Speaker 1: results in that we see assets being build up in
Speaker 1: terms of valuations, and so there's going to be fallout.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it's going to mean less less. I mean
Speaker 4: performance is probably going to be hit. I think it's not.
Speaker 4: It's not there yet, right, There's going to be a
Speaker 4: few years where the asset class is going to thrive.
Speaker 4: But at some point, I mean, things go back to
Speaker 4: the mean.
Speaker 3: Hey, we should know for everybody who has not necessarily
Speaker 3: been keeping up, Hulhan Loki is acquiring Triogra. The deal
Speaker 3: is expected to close in the first half of the year.
Speaker 3: What does this look like for for your life? What
Speaker 3: does it look like for the business? I mean, this
Speaker 3: is a big deal.
Speaker 1: Do you go on vacations.
Speaker 4: I'm not yet dealing. I'm not yet going on vacation.
Speaker 4: The deal is not closed yet. We are we have
Speaker 4: signed an agreement. We are basically done, except that we're
Speaker 4: waiting for regulatory approvals. So we should be done, as
Speaker 4: you said, in the next month. For the time being,
Speaker 4: we operate as two different businesses. But at some point, yes,
Speaker 4: we will become part of a big machine, which is
Speaker 4: great for us. Lots of new opportunities in this huge market.
Speaker 3: Can you give us some details of the agreement?
Speaker 4: Can I say, no, you want I'm afraid I'm afraid
Speaker 4: this was this is still something we are not talking about.
Speaker 4: Maybe when the deal is done, maybe, I mean that's
Speaker 4: also that's also something they need to agree to.
Speaker 3: Maybe you could tell us what the tie up of
Speaker 3: these two companies means for your business.
Speaker 4: Uh, it means it's really one plus one equals three
Speaker 4: maybe more. Ours strength are their weaknesses. Their weaknesses are
Speaker 4: you know, the opposite. There's I mean geographically and business wise.
Speaker 4: We bring a lot of stuff they don't have. They
Speaker 4: bring a lot of distribution power to us. They have
Speaker 4: thirty five offices, we have five. We're not in Asia
Speaker 4: with Triago, which at some point I guess would have
Speaker 4: become a problem. So we're now much much stronger. I mean,
Speaker 4: we will be much much stronger.
Speaker 1: But there is something to write being bigger, like I
Speaker 1: think at some point, because there is so much competition
Speaker 1: that when you can be a house that offers a
Speaker 1: lot like as you said, there's not a lot of overlap,
Speaker 1: there's power in that, and there's something about increasing your
Speaker 1: presence physically that makes it easier.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, absolutely, I think is this There's going to be
Speaker 4: more consolidation in this space for that same reason you
Speaker 4: want to be a giant or nothing.
Speaker 1: Right, And I'm asuman clients come to you. They want
Speaker 1: a lot of things that they can play with or
Speaker 1: work with. Hey, you have shared with us your ten
Speaker 1: outrageous predictions for private equity in twenty and twenty four.
Speaker 1: What's your most outrageous?
Speaker 4: So I've seen some of them, you know, in the past.
Speaker 4: Some of them did happen, so maybe not so outrageous,
Speaker 4: you know. I guess the most outrageous is probably Carla
Speaker 4: Iken and Nelson Pels buying all the distressed funds out there.
Speaker 4: I think I put the forty billion number in there.
Speaker 4: There will be lots of fallout from funds. There has
Speaker 4: to be some some cleanup, and there aren't many players
Speaker 4: doing that already. So these guys or similar entities could
Speaker 4: probably do a lot in that space.
Speaker 3: Hey, one thing I was really surprised to see on
Speaker 3: your predictions for twenty twenty four was Amazon creating an
Speaker 3: online private equity exchange, this so called category killer. Carol
Speaker 3: and I've spoken about the past couple of years. The
Speaker 3: idea of private equity. You know, private equity providers want
Speaker 3: to access to people's farrow one case. They want to
Speaker 3: make this thing. You know that just not just high
Speaker 3: net worth individuals have acces too. What do you mean
Speaker 3: by Amazon doing this?
Speaker 4: I think the asset class needs fluidity. A few years ago,
Speaker 4: it wasn't really needed because the retail investors were not
Speaker 4: playing in that game. Today it's a complete different story
Speaker 4: and they I think these people especially need to know
Speaker 4: that there's a way out, right.
Speaker 3: But that's one of the reasons why returns have been
Speaker 3: good is because it's you get that high return in
Speaker 3: exchange for locking up your money for you know, ten
Speaker 3: twelve years.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but you can still get a very decent return
Speaker 4: even if you leave the show, you know, in the
Speaker 4: in the in between, right, And that's that's an option,
Speaker 4: it's not. I guess that most people stay where they are,
Speaker 4: and ninety nine percent of the paper, the private equity paper,
Speaker 4: stays where it is. Trades account for roughly one percent.
Speaker 4: My bet is that, especially if such tool exists, you know,
Speaker 4: we may go to five percent.
Speaker 1: Just got about thirty forty seconds left here. I love
Speaker 1: this one though about Michael Jordan, Serena Williams and Blue
Speaker 1: Owl Console Private equity, sports investments, I mean sports private equity. Man,
Speaker 1: it's a love affair.
Speaker 4: Prediction prediction, don't this one could happen.
Speaker 1: Thirty seconds here, This one could happen.
Speaker 4: This one could happen. I don't know about the names,
Speaker 4: I don't know about the people. But there's private equity
Speaker 4: on sports, as you said, is a love affair. And
Speaker 4: there's a lot to be done in the space. And
Speaker 4: it's still pretty you know, it's I mean, there's much
Speaker 4: more to be done compared to other sectors where most
Speaker 4: of the action has been taking place already.
Speaker 1: There's something to you on AI, which I love. AI
Speaker 1: hits turbulence in private equity, back to acquisitions. I love
Speaker 1: that because I feel like, maybe take some of the
Speaker 1: froth out.
Speaker 4: Maybe it's an art not as science and human beings
Speaker 4: are still needed in the space.
Speaker 1: Come back soon, let us know. Thanks are going Antwindry
Speaker 1: and this was fun and interesting and engaging. Founder of
Speaker 1: Triago joining us here at our Bloomberg Interactive Broker Studio.
Speaker 1: I'm Carol Masser along with to the stand of it,
Speaker 1: this is Bloomberg. Well not sure if this has been
Speaker 1: on your radar. But cases of syphilis, which yes, was
Speaker 1: once we're once on its way to being eradicated. Our
Speaker 1: soaring in the US. Numbers are hitting levels not seen
Speaker 1: for seventy years. Is according to the CDC, the Centers
Speaker 1: for Disease Control and Prevention. So think about it. Cyphilis
Speaker 1: at one point was on its way to be knocked
Speaker 1: out completely.
Speaker 3: Well, it's a different time now and it's kind of startling.
Speaker 3: More than two hundred thousand cases were recorded in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty two. The latest figure show that's up seventeen percent
Speaker 3: on the previous year. If left untreated, Carol, the disease
Speaker 3: can cause blindness and even death.
Speaker 1: All right, For more on this, we turn back to
Speaker 1: doctor Ian las Bader, clinical Professor of Medicine at NYU
Speaker 1: Lango Medical Center. He is on Zoom in New York City.
Speaker 1: Great to have you here and great to be talking
Speaker 1: with you, Doctor Les Beater again, I hope you're well.
Speaker 2: Everything is great. Hope all is well with the beautiful
Speaker 2: Carol and handsome Tim.
Speaker 1: Oh well, thank you very much, good very much. You
Speaker 1: will keep coming back after that. No, we're doing well,
Speaker 1: just trying to keep up with kind of the newsflow.
Speaker 1: Having said that this, you know, speaking of new use
Speaker 1: flow and headlines, you know, we are always interested in
Speaker 1: various health issues. This cut us by surprise, tell us
Speaker 1: about what's going on when it comes to syphilis in
Speaker 1: the cases that are increasing.
Speaker 2: So we really go from macro events, geopolitical events, Powell
Speaker 2: interest rates to the micro, from macro to micro. Syphilis
Speaker 2: has been around for centuries and STDs have been around
Speaker 2: for centuries. Syphilis is a small spiral bacteria called a
Speaker 2: spiral keep really goes through several phases. After an acute infection,
Speaker 2: it goes through a primary and then secondary phases. It
Speaker 2: can become latent where really there are no symptoms. And
Speaker 2: I think that's the biggest issue in those several phases
Speaker 2: after that initial physical contact where there may be an
Speaker 2: ulcer Asrah Shanker, and the rate is going up. We
Speaker 2: have rates of STDs going up two point five million
Speaker 2: cases all told, chlamydia area syphalus, herpes. Now, syphilis can
Speaker 2: be asymptomatic after the initial ulcer, and that's really the
Speaker 2: problem is that we need to screen people better for this.
Speaker 2: It's not just a disease of over fifty five communities
Speaker 2: in Florida. We see this across all groups, in young
Speaker 2: people and gay men, in heterosexuals, so we really have
Speaker 2: to screen for it. A pregnant woman have to be
Speaker 2: screened as well. We're seeing an increase in neonatal syphilis,
Speaker 2: which can be very devastating for development. So it is
Speaker 2: very concerning the number of cases two hundred thousand year
Speaker 2: just of syphilis alone. Easily treatable with antibiotics, bicillin, penicillin
Speaker 2: which is easily available. So the key thing really is
Speaker 2: screening patients, asking people when they come in, ask your doctor,
Speaker 2: can I have an SDD panel says for HIV IT
Speaker 2: tys for a syphilis diarrhea test for hepatitis.
Speaker 3: Doctor Lesbater, I'm surprised to hear you say that it's
Speaker 3: easily treated, because we know it is easily treated based
Speaker 3: on the medications. But aren't these medications historically, at least
Speaker 3: in the last couple of years, haven't they been in
Speaker 3: short supply. I mean I'm talking about penicillin. Then bisillin
Speaker 3: as well has been in shortage.
Speaker 2: By bicillin. Bysilin is a certain form of intramuscular penicillin. Okay,
Speaker 2: Typically you know a big syringe in the butt, which
Speaker 2: may be why people get a little afraid of that. Yes,
Speaker 2: you're exactly right. Recently supplies have been short, that's no reason.
Speaker 2: There are other alternative and oral medications that can be used.
Speaker 2: That's really no reason not to be tested, and for
Speaker 2: physicians there are other options. We also have infectious disease specialists.
Speaker 2: If you get a positive result on a blood test
Speaker 2: and you're not sure, refer to an infectious disease specialist
Speaker 2: so that the patient gets the right treatment. All pregnant women, young,
Speaker 2: sexually active people, but even older people should be tested
Speaker 2: if they're single, if they're sexually active. Really, there's no
Speaker 2: reason not to screen everyone on a regular basis.
Speaker 1: Why wait, so, why are we seeing in increasing cases?
Speaker 2: Well, I think they're a variety of reasons. Certainly, when
Speaker 2: people were let out of the gate after COVID, everyone
Speaker 2: was sheltering in place. In twenty nineteen and twenty, we've
Speaker 2: really seen an explosion people going out. I think we've
Speaker 2: dropped our guard. People are not using condoms or barrier methods.
Speaker 2: I don't think people are really thinking about it, and
Speaker 2: I think sometimes doctors are uncomfortable to say to young
Speaker 2: people are old people, How do you feel about doing
Speaker 2: STD screening? Usually if you bring it up in the office,
Speaker 2: patients will say, sure, it's an extra vial of blood,
Speaker 2: that's fine to do. So I think it's a combination
Speaker 2: of patients not asking and doctor's not asking, and I
Speaker 2: think there's been more contact, and I think Tim, you're right.
Speaker 2: Because of a little less availability, doctors may have been
Speaker 2: reluctant to test for it or treat for it. The
Speaker 2: problem with syphilis is people can be asymptomatic and spread it.
Speaker 2: Unlike anna rhea or chlamydia, where typically you have painful
Speaker 2: urination or a drip. Syphilis after the initial infection, maybe
Speaker 2: asymptomatic patients don't even know they have it. They can
Speaker 2: present non specifically fever, rash on the hands, swollen lumph notes,
Speaker 2: so it can be tricky to diagnose.
Speaker 3: Doctor Lesbater, I'm wondering if sort of this big shift
Speaker 3: has happened in recent years with the way that people
Speaker 3: think about this stuff. You know, when I was growing up,
Speaker 3: HIV was a death sentence for people. And the incredible
Speaker 3: advances that we've seen in treating HIV and making it
Speaker 3: so essentially live people are able to live with HIV
Speaker 3: at this point, very long and healthy lives. I'm wondering
Speaker 3: if we've seen if that is part of a shift
Speaker 3: in terms of how we think about STDs as a society,
Speaker 3: that we're no longer sort of scared straight with this stuff.
Speaker 2: You're so right. I think that's exactly the case. I
Speaker 2: think it's off people's radar internationally and globally, there's something
Speaker 2: like seven point five million cases of syphilis. Forget the
Speaker 2: other SDDS, that's just syphilis seven point five million globally,
Speaker 2: So people who travel, people who may have encounters overseas,
Speaker 2: we really need to raise it on the radar. And
Speaker 2: you're right now that HIV rates are coming down and
Speaker 2: it's more treatable, we give patients at risk pre exposure prophylaxis,
Speaker 2: so once a day pill for HIV to reduce their
Speaker 2: ability to transmit it to other people or to acquire it.
Speaker 2: So you're right, I think our guard is down with
Speaker 2: the more traditional STDs because HIV is more manageable these days.
Speaker 2: We really need to raise awareness, and it's good that
Speaker 2: you guys are raising awareness.
Speaker 1: So what would you suggest to individuals listening and thinking, Okay,
Speaker 1: how do I kind of incorporate this into my own
Speaker 1: medical care and make sure I stay on top of this.
Speaker 2: You know, once a year. There's no harm if you're
Speaker 2: sexually active, or more frequently than that, certainly, if you
Speaker 2: engage in high risk behavior. Every time you see the
Speaker 2: doctor a couple of times a year. In addition to
Speaker 2: whatever testing PSA cholesterol, ask to have them put in
Speaker 2: an STD panel which tests for hepatitis, herpes, gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis,
Speaker 2: and if any of those are positive, early treatment means
Speaker 2: better treatment, less likely to transmit it to someone else.
Speaker 2: And if you have atypical symptoms a rash or fever,
Speaker 2: swollen lymph nodes raise the possibility, there's no harm in
Speaker 2: doing a blood test, and if they're positive then it's
Speaker 2: eminently treatable, usually earlier on. Later on it's harder to treat.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, some good advice and something to think
Speaker 1: about when we go, you know, in terms of just
Speaker 1: your own healthcare. Hey, listen, Ian, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Always appreciate getting some time with you, doctor Ian las Bader.
Speaker 1: He's clinical professor of medicine at ny U Landgown Medical Center.
Speaker 1: Joining us on Zoom from New York City,