Bain Capital’s David Gross on global opportunities and private equity’s evolution
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Welcome to another episode of Goldman Sachs Exchanges Great Investors. I'm Alison Mas, chairman of investment banking in Goldman Sachs' global banking and markets, and your host for today's episode. I'm thrilled to be joined by David Gross, co managing partner of Bain Capital. Bain Capital is one of the most prominent private investment firms in existence with about a hundred and $85,000,000,000 in assets under management. David is a founding member of Bain Capital's Asia business, and he's been the driving force behind some of the largest and most consequential private investments in Asia. I'
Great to be here. Thanks for having me, Allison.
So we are picking a very interesting time to record this podcast. There are real questions about the outlook for the global economy, which provides an investment firm like yours, like Bain Capital, which has a global portfolio, a unique perspective. So before we get into that, I'd love to spend some time on your views about the macro landscape globally. And I'll put you on the spot and ask you, are there countries or asset classes that you think are particularly well situated or particularly at risk in this very moment?
Sure. I mean, the answer is yes. We continue to think a lot of sectors in The United States are gonna have significant tailwinds because there's been a lot of savings, a lot of capacity to spend, significant government, you know, intervention, the economy to drive stimulus that will be a positive for manufacturing businesses, and other ways that The United States is set up to actually perform quite well in terms of energy prices and, obviously, the really strong position in technology. It's sector by sector, but this notion that The US sits in a pretty good place from a geopolitical perspectiv
So, you know, you talk about Asia, and I've been working with you and with Bain for over twenty years. And I remember having conversations with you in the mid two thousands about Asia and which countries that you wanted to plant your flag in and where we saw opportunities, and we compared a lot of really interesting notes back then. Yeah. But you were one of the first private equity firms to really establish a presence there. And you notably started your career in Japan where the firm has been doing business for almost twenty years now. Right? Yes. So before we dive into your career in Asia, c
So as you know, this was a very US centric business. Part of it was just that's where the funding and the financial innovation started, But also this notion that private equity could be a useful tool in terms of corporate governance, in terms of driving efficiency at companies with a long term focus, the ability to add value, a kind of a low cost of capital was kind of a unique phenomenon to United States. And it's not like that doesn't apply to Europe and Asia, but there were other constraints there just in terms of the process of gaining corporate control and making investments. But probably
you also had to have staying power because I think you know better than anyone that so many of your, quote, peer organizations were in Japan, out of Japan, in Japan, out of Japan, and you've been consistently there for decades. So I do wanna talk about Japan a little bit more, which is why is it a particularly appealing market for investors like Bain?
Well, I'd say one is the value equation is still very attractive. There are a lot of great Japanese businesses with good technologies that, you know, come from the r and d focus, the extremely high standards of education in the country, and those are all tremendous assets.
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