TPG Credit Arm Chasing More Spotify-Like Deals With Goldman Hire

(Bloomberg) -- TPG Sixth Street Partners, the $21 billion credit arm of TPG, has tapped Mike McGinn to expand its business tied to financing growing companies, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

McGinn was one of the co-heads of the private-capital investing team at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and will help lead a similar group at TSSP along with Bo Stanley, the person said, asking not to be identified as the information isn't public. The TPG unit was part of an investment team that helped music-streaming service Spotify Ltd. raise $1 billion in convertible debt in 2016.

A representative for TSSP declined to comment.

TSSP along with another unit within TPG and Dragoneer Investment Group participated in the Spotify deal in March 2016. The investors converted a portion of the Spotify debt deal into equity and sold the shares to Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd., according to a regulatory filing. The rest of the debt was converted to shares, the filing shows.

TSSP was formed in 2009 and is led by former Goldman partner Alan Waxman. It accounts for more than a quarter of TPG's assets under management. Waxman had previously led Goldman's special situations group, which houses the private-capital investing arm.

Waxman's credit platform is also seeking to raise more than $8 billion for funds to pursue direct-lending deals and other credit opportunities, according to a memo seen by Bloomberg. One of the funds is a so-called contingent vehicle that would deploy capital when there's an uptick in market turbulence leading to new distressed opportunities.

The financing for growth companies would include deals across the capital structure, from equity to debt deals. TSSP was also one of the lead backers for a $400 million capital raise by data-center provider AirTrunk.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sridhar Natarajan in New York at snatarajan15@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nikolaj Gammeltoft at ngammeltoft@bloomberg.net, Dan Wilchins

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.