Taylor Swift shakes off private equity [PitchBook]
The 14-Grammy-winning artist repurchased her catalog of music from Shamrock Capital after the buyout firm bought the rights in 2020 from her then-manager Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings…. [Shamrock] bought the ownership rights to Swift’s first six albums from Braun in 2020 for around $360 million, according to Billboard. Swift has bought them back for a figure “relatively close” to that amount, Billboard reported….
Despite Swift’s achieving a stardom akin to that of The Beatles and Elvis Presley, the value of Shamrock’s holdings did not appreciate as one might have expected, Billboard reported. This was the result of an orchestrated effort by Swift to regain control of her catalog.
This is why Jamie Dimon is always so gloomy on the economy [CNBC]While Dimon seems perpetually worried about the economy and rising geopolitical turmoil, the U.S. keeps chugging along. That means unemployment and consumer spending has been more resilient than expected, allowing JPMorgan to churn out record profits…. Perhaps the best explanation for Dimon’s dour outlook is that, no matter how big and powerful JPMorgan is, financial companies can be fragile. The history of finance is one of the rise and fall of institutions, sometimes when managers become complacent or greedy.
As the TACO trade goes viral, another is gaining traction: ‘Anywhere But The USA’ [CNBC]
“It’s become quite emotive,” Rami Cassis, founder of London’s Parabellum Investments, said. “Nobody wants to invest in an environment where the government might change its mind overnight.”
GOP bill cuts social spending—but popular tax break for hedge funds survives [Fortune via Yahoo!]
One area lawmakers didn’t touch: the so-called carried interest loophole….
[Donald] Trump, when he first ran for president in 2016, vowed to change the carried interest loophole but didn’t follow through…. Trump also spoke to Republican lawmakers about changing carried interest in February but took no action.
Apollo Keeps ‘Foot on the Gas’ in Dealmaking [WSJ]
“Since the ‘Liberation Day’ announcements in early April, we have kept our foot on the gas, with our funds committing over $2 billion of capital across four M&A transactions,” the New York-based asset manager said in a May 22 letter to private-equity fund investors…. “Our investors expect us to lean in when others pull back, and we have done exactly that,” the letter asserts.
Indian Billionaire Gautam Adani Comes Under New Scrutiny from U.S. Prosecutors [WSJ]
Gautam Adani, Asia’s second-richest man, is trying to get the Trump administration to drop foreign bribery charges against him. Instead, he is facing a new front in his fight with prosecutors: a probe into whether his companies are buying Iranian petrochemical products.
