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  "id": "269",
  "slug": "private-equity-long-game",
  "edition": "2026-10-19T12",
  "url": "https://hangingcontext.com/stories/2026-10-19/private-equity-long-game/",
  "newsroom": "finance-investing",
  "beat": null,
  "newsroom_title": "Finance & Investing",
  "angle": "EQT's A$9.3B Cleanaway binding deal lands as two PE operators detail the long-hold, compounding playbook.",
  "headline": "EQT's A$9.3 billion Cleanaway deal is the long-hold playbook in action",
  "dek": "A binding A$9.3B Australian take-private lands the same day two investors lay out patient capital: 15-year horizons, compounding over exits, and Apollo's Yahoo as the live hold-or-exit case study.",
  "published_at": "2026-10-19T12:37:52Z",
  "labels": {
    "trust": "confirmed",
    "trust_text": "Confirmed · 3 sources",
    "newsroom": "Finance & Investing"
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  "source_count": 3,
  "publishers": [
    "capital-allocators-podcast",
    "eqt-partners",
    "sourcery-podcast"
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  "key_facts": [
    {
      "text": "EQT Infrastructure VI signed a binding Scheme Implementation Deed to acquire 100% of Cleanaway for about A$9.3B in enterprise value, a 32.1% premium to the August 12, 2026 close.",
      "self_reported": true,
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    {
      "text": "Cleanaway shareholders would receive A$3.095 cash per share; the board unanimously recommends the scheme, with implementation expected by end March 2027.",
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    {
      "text": "EQT Infrastructure VI will be 85–90% invested after the Cleanaway deal, the company says.",
      "self_reported": true,
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    {
      "text": "Tracy Britt Cool's Canberra runs a 15-plus-year horizon, a 4,000-CEO/owner/C-suite community, and reviews roughly 500 investments to complete one or two deals.",
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    {
      "text": "Canberra reports a 35% earnings CAGR across its companies, mostly organic, and prefers holding businesses compounding at 20% or more annually over exiting.",
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    {
      "text": "Apollo acquired Yahoo from Verizon for about $5B; Lanzone calls it one of Apollo's fastest-returning deals, expects an eventual IPO or sale outcome, but says there is no confirmed IPO date or plan.",
      "self_reported": true,
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  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "The deal",
      "paragraphs": [
        {
          "markdown": "EQT Infrastructure VI has signed a binding Scheme Implementation Deed to acquire 100% of Cleanaway, Australia's integrated waste management and resource recovery platform, the company announced. Cleanaway shareholders would receive A$3.095 in cash per share, implying an enterprise value of about A$9.3 billion — a 32.1% premium to the closing price on August 12, 2026. The Cleanaway board unanimously recommends shareholders vote in favor, and the transaction is expected to be implemented by the end of March 2027. Those figures come from EQT's own announcement.",
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        },
        {
          "markdown": "Scale matters here. EQT says Infrastructure VI will be 85–90% invested after this deal — Cleanaway is not a side bet, it is the fund nearly full. J.P. Morgan and RBC Capital Markets acted as joint financial advisors to EQT; Allens acted as legal advisor.",
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    },
    {
      "heading": "The compounding sermon",
      "paragraphs": [
        {
          "markdown": "The same week the deal was announced, Capital Allocators released an interview with Tracy Britt Cool, who spent a decade as Warren Buffett's deputy at Berkshire before founding a firm built on 15-plus-year holding periods for family-owned businesses. Her shop looks at roughly 500 potential investments to do one or two deals, runs a community of 4,000 CEOs, owners, and C-suite executives, and reports 35% earnings CAGR across its companies, driven mostly by organic growth. Those are her firm's own figures, stated on the podcast.",
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        {
          "markdown": "The operating philosophy is explicit: the firm prefers to keep holding businesses that compound at 20% or more a year rather than sell them to chase new, riskier investments. It exits only when the market offers a price internal growth cannot match, the outlook turns risky, or a better strategic partner appears. It is the Berkshire doctrine — never sell a compounder — rebuilt for the middle market.",
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    },
    {
      "heading": "Apollo's Yahoo, five years in",
      "paragraphs": [
        {
          "markdown": "The counterweight arrived the same day on the Sourcery podcast, where Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone discussed Apollo's stewardship five years after acquiring Yahoo from Verizon for about $5 billion. Lanzone described the acquisition of Yahoo by Apollo as one of the fastest-returning deals in Apollo's history — and he added that management expects an eventual outcome such as an IPO or a sale, while stressing there is no confirmed IPO date or plan.",
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        },
        {
          "markdown": "The turnaround recipe Lanzone described is operational, not financial engineering: a six-month evaluation focused on team assessment and data before major changes, a 2022 reorganization into independent brand divisions with their own product and technology leadership, and a 2022–2023 cull of non-core assets. Five years on, he says Yahoo has moved from turnaround to comeback phase — the classic PE playbook executed as an operator's playbook.",
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    },
    {
      "heading": "Hold or exit, in one week",
      "paragraphs": [
        {
          "markdown": "Put the three items together and you get the live tension in private capital. Canberra's answer to the question of when to sell is: when the business stops compounding, and not before. Apollo's answer, at least for Yahoo, is that an exit — IPO or sale — is the expected outcome, with the timing deliberately unspecified. Both are patient; they differ on whether patience has an endpoint.",
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        },
        {
          "markdown": "For a VC reader the Cleanaway number is the signal that matters. A$9.3 billion of infrastructure equity into waste management says the long-duration capital that used to sit in buyout funds is now competing for exactly the kind of boring, compounding assets that patient strategies need. The 32.1% premium is what it costs to take a compounder private when everyone has read the same playbook.",
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  ],
  "unresolved": [
    "Whether Cleanaway shareholders approve the scheme and it closes by the end of March 2027.",
    "What form Apollo's eventual Yahoo outcome takes — Lanzone confirmed no IPO date or plan exists.",
    "Canberra's reported 35% earnings CAGR is the firm's own figure, stated on a podcast, not an audited track record."
  ],
  "decision_card": {
    "useful_for": [
      "VCs and growth investors tracking where patient capital is crowding in",
      "Operators weighing long-hold versus exit strategies",
      "Anyone underwriting infrastructure and waste-management assets"
    ],
    "not_for": [
      "Readers wanting an exit-timing call on Apollo's Yahoo — Lanzone gave no IPO date or plan",
      "Anyone treating podcast remarks as audited financials"
    ],
    "compare_against": [
      "The announced A$3.095/share terms against Cleanaway's trading history",
      "Canberra's stated 35% portfolio earnings CAGR against the middle-market benchmarks it competes with"
    ]
  },
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      "title": "EQT agrees to acquire Cleanaway, a leading Australian integrated waste management and resource recovery platform",
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      "source_url": "https://eqtgroup.com/news/eqt-agrees-to-acquire-cleanaway-a-leading-australian-integrated-waste-management-and-resource-recovery-platform-2026-10-18",
      "published_date": "2026-10-18"
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      "title": "Building a Berkshire for the Middle Market - Tracy Britt Cool (EP.521)",
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      "title": "Apollo's Yahoo Playbook, 5 Years After the $5B Deal",
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      "url": "https://hangingcontext.com/stories/2026-10-18/healthcare-comeback-picks-shovels/",
      "headline": "Healthcare lagged the S&P by 50%. The picks-and-shovels crowd is back.",
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