| Type | Limited liability company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Private Equity |
| Founded | 1939 |
| Headquarters | New York City, New York, United States |
| Products | Investments, private equity funds |
| Total assets | $35 billion |
| Website | www.warburgpincus.com |
Warburg Pincus, LLC is an American private equity firm with offices in the United States, Europe, Brazil and Asia. It has been a private equity investor since 1966. The firm currently has approximately $35 billion in assets under management and invests in a range of sectors including consumer, energy, financial services, health care, industrial, media, technology, telecommunication and real estate. Warburg Pincus is a growth investor and its active portfolio of more than 100 companies is highly diversified by stage, sector and geography.
Warburg Pincus also has a long history as a leading investor in the information and communication technology sectors, including investments in Avaya, BEA Systems, Bharti Tele-Ventures, Cassatt, Harbour Networks, NeuStar, Systinet, Telcordia and VERITAS Software. Warburg Pincus has an active portfolio of more than 115 companies spanning the entire spectrum of scale and maturity, and employs approximately 160 investment management professionals.
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Early history |
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The firm traces its history to 1939, when Eric Warburg of the Warburg banking family founded a company under the name E.M. Warburg & Co. Its first address was 52 William Street, New York, the Kuhn Loeb building. Throughout the early post-war period, the firm remained a small office of not more than 20 employees. In 1966, E.M. Warburg merged with Lionel I. Pincus & Co, forming a new company that eventually became known as E.M. Warburg, Pincus & Co.[1] In 1965, when Eric Warburg retired to Germany, control was handed to Lionel Pincus, a partner in the Ladenburg Thalmann investment bank, and the working language of the office switched from German to English. Lionel ran the company from 1966 to 2002.[2]
Warburg Pincus began investing in Europe in 1983 and opened its first office in Asia in 1994. It has invested more than $5 billion in Europe; more than $2 billion in India and more than $1 billion in China. The firm is structured as a global partnership led by co-presidents Charles Kaye and Joseph Landy. Kaye has been with Warburg Pincus since 1986 and worked to launch the Asian operations. Landy has been with the firm since 1985, focusing on investments in information technology, communications applications and structured investments. Approximately 40% of the firm’s investments are outside of the U.S.
During the post-war period, Eric Warburg vied with his cousin Siegmund Warburg, founder of S.G. Warburg, over the use of the Warburg name in New York. Siegmund wished to expand the S.G. Warburg franchise into New York but was blocked by the existence of E.M. Warburg & Co. Following the effective sale of the business to Pincus, Siegmund Warburg accused Eric of prostituting the Warburg name. "Complicating matters was that Siegmund thought Pincus the wrong kind of Jew - of Eastern European ancestry, with a garment-district background. Professionally, he thought Pincus well below haute banque stature in the venture capital world."[3]
In January 1970, Siegmund finally got the name changed to E.M. Warburg, Pincus & Company to differentiate it from S.G. Warburg & Company. "In the end, however, Lionel Pincus had the last laugh on Siegmund. He expanded Eric's tiny firm into a giant, thriving business, with three and a half billion dollars of venture capital partnerships."[4]
In 1999, they attempted to purchase English Premier League football (soccer) team Everton.[5]
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