This Wall Street Journal ($) article profiles the Texas Pacific Group, the Fort Worth-based investment fund founded by former bankruptcy lawyer David Bonderman and business whiz Jim Coulter in 1993.
Originally established to invest in and restructure Continental Airlines to avoid a third bankruptcy case for the airline, TGP has raised over $15 billion, with which it has bought control of companies ranging from Continental to the clothing retailer J. Crew to the Enron’s Northwest pipeline subsidiary, Portland General Electric. TGP is now one of the busiest and most-successful private-equity boutiques, controlling companies with combined annual revenue of more than $40 billion. Before fees, TGP’s return to investors have averaged 55% annually.
Interestingly, TGP’s success is directly tied to its policy of never hesitating to take on troubled companies that its competitors avoid. Moreover, despite its strong reputation and track record, TGP prefers to play behind-the-scenes — it is so invisible that it does not even have a Web site.

“The market often thinks we are crazy when we invest,” Mr. Coulter told the WSJ. “We have, however, made a decent living proving the market can be wrong.”

Read the entire article.