🎥 Cantilever Group's Todd Owens - GP stakes: the best of all worlds? (live from New York)

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast. Today’s conversation features a live podcast that takes place at BTG Pactual’s NYC office for an audience in private markets. We are joined by Todd Owens, the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Cantilever Group, where BTG Pactual is an investor. Cantilever is an independent firm focused on providing capital solutions to middle market asset managers. The firm’s capital can be used to accelerate growth, support acquisitions or liftouts, fund GP commitments, seed new strategies, facilitate generational ownership transfer, and provide liquidity to founders. Cantilever focuses on asset management firms that have enterprise values between $50M and $500M. The team has executed on over $500M of GP stakes, financing, and seeding transactions as both investors and principals. The team’s advisory experience working with stakes funds includes over 15 GP stakes transactions, multiple GP stakes portfolio financings, numerous GP and BDC IPOs, and dozens of asset management financing and control transactions. Cantilever is working with two strategic partners as they build their firm: BTG Pactual, the ~$30B market cap Brazilian bank and wealth and asset manager has invested into Cantilever’s fund, and Broadhaven Ventures, the principal investment arm of Broadhaven Capital Partners. Todd has over 30 years of experience as an advisor covering financial institutions and as a senior financial services executive. Prior to founding Cantilever, Todd has been a Partner at Broadhaven Capital Partners, an independent financial services focused investment bank that’s completed over $100B in announced M&A transaction volume, as well as the former CEO of Fifth Street Finance. Todd began his career at Goldman, Sachs & Co, spending 24 years including as a Managing Director and Partner in the Investment Banking Division. Todd and I had a fascinating conversation about the GP stakes space and why the middle market represents a compelling part of the asset management ecosystem as the industry undergoes change and consolidation. We discussed: * The early days of alternative asset managers going public. * The evolution of the GP stakes market. * The role that GP stakes investing can play in the growth of alternative asset managers. * How and why GP stakes has shades of private equity, private credit, and secondaries in a single strategy. * A tale of two cities — the upper end of the market and the middle-market. * What will liquidity look like in the GP stakes space? Thanks Todd for sharing your wisdom and views on GP stakes and asset management. Clip #1: Is GP stakes the best of all worlds? Clip #2: How big does the middle market become? Clip #3: Will the middle market continue to persist? Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to the Alt Goes Mainstream Podcast 00:40 Live Podcast at BTG Pactual's New York Office 00:49 Introducing Todd Owens and Cantilever Group 02:26 Welcome to Alt Goes Mainstream Live 03:04 Todd's Background and Perspective 03:42 Early Challenges in Minority Equity 04:30 Alternative Asset Managers Going Public 05:36 Evolution of the GP Stakes Market 06:13 Understanding the Business Model 06:53 Public vs. Private Market Perceptions 08:44 The Role of GP Stakes in Firm Growth 09:12 Different Approaches to Building a Business 02:23 Lessons from advising Oaktree and Ares 10:21 Sophistication in the Market 10:53 Changes in Manager Skillsets 11:59 Differences Between Upper and Middle Markets 12:33 Opportunities in the Middle Market 13:25 Strategic Value of Minority Equity Investors 14:22 Market Stratification and Focus 16:21 Future of the Middle Market 18:17 Distribution of Private Markets to Wealth Channel 19:08 Evolution of Wealth Management Industry 20:29 Democratization of Alternatives 21:19 GP Stakes: The Best of All Worlds? 21:39 Investment Profile of GP Stakes 23:29 Betting on Private Markets Growth 24:18 Liquidity in the GP Stakes Space 25:58 Quick Fire Questions 26:05 Favorite Asset Class in 2025? 26:46 Next Firm to Go Public? 27:11 Complexity of Merging Firms 28:06 Future of Middle Market GP Stakes 28:50 Conclusion: Live Podcast Wrap-Up 28:58 Thank You and Closing Remarks Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant. Join over 10,500 thought leaders from top private markets firms and wealth management like Blackstone, Apollo, Ares, KKR, Carlyle, Blue Owl, CVC, TPG, Brookfield Oaktree, EQT, Vista, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, BlackRock, Fidelity, iCapital, Franklin Templeton, Nuveen, Hg, Permira, Hightower, Focus Financial, Cerity Partners, and more. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit altgoesmainstream.substack.com