The Swedish kingmakers behind European private equity giant EQT

Great read via ⁦William Louch⁩ in Stockholm for ⁦Financial Times⁩ on.ft.com/3U0Yr5M

Thames Water shareholders backed away over regulator’s demands that they calculated would cost £8bn

Scoop by gillplimmer & Robert Smith

ft.com/content/f9f6d7… via @ft

Pre-weekend scoop

CVC is poised to launch its long awaited IPO as early as Monday

⁦Arash Massoudi⁩ on.ft.com/3JeRcT9

Chelsea spent £75m on agents fees in the last two transfer windows - pretty sure that is a Premier League record. Adds to their financial challenges for this season

I wrote 1,000 words about Patrick Drahi's attempt to create a market for art-backed securities at Sotheby's ft.com/content/e846c5…

We are sooooo back x.com/benitoz/status…

Bravo James Horncastle 👏

Broken Britain

Norway says ‘nei’ to private equity ft.com/content/1cb011… via Robin Wigglesworth

Scoop from Eric Platt and myself.

Brookfield Asset Management is in advanced talks to buy a majority stake in $22bn private credit manager Castlelake.

ft.com/content/2aa1c2…

NEW: How Rishi Sunak built a close relationship with Blackstone’s bosses

Links between PM and private equity group have fuelled speculation about Sunak’s post-election future

Financial Times story by @_modwyer, me, @georgewparker @antoinegara

on.ft.com/3vEvmFr

'Where's my office?!' How Rishi Sunak built a close relationship with Blackstone’s bosses
ft.com/content/4c8222…

Markets must stop comparing the UK and the US

Smart column by Megan Greene

ft.com/content/13579c…

Slightly getting the impression that running a $1.6trn investment fund isn't all that hard and someone is very very bored at work!

fun story by jenny strasburg

wsj.com/business/the-p…

Top Goldman Sachs executive quits for hedge fund Millennium - as we flagged in February, another big Goldman partner is out - scoop via Harriet Agnew and co! ft.com/content/c34d2a… via @ft

jaw-dropping story from Sridhar Natarajan and co bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Brits like to think their lack of self-reflection is a strength, or at least a powerful coping mechanism. It is actually one of their biggest weaknesses.

A must read on a country in denial and in decline

newyorker.com/magazine/2024/…

The Thames Water saga has moved from the 'gradually' to the 'suddenly' stage: parent company Kemble announces it has defaulted on its debt

Gender pay gap hits six-year high at Goldman Sachs UK operations

in other words, no improvement during David Solomon’s tenure 5+ year tenure as CEO of the Wall Street bank

Ft scoop w ⁦Joshua Franklin⁩
on.ft.com/4cI9QQE

Something I’ve been watching for some time.

Blackstone’s Breit advertises a healthy 4.6% distribution. But how close does it come to covering that payout from its over $100bn portfolio of property?

on.ft.com/3PPdIFH