Forbes Gets into Capital Raising Business

Business magazine publisher Forbes is getting into the capital raising business, lending its name to a private investment group run by New York-based G2 Investment Group.

The Forbes Private Capital Group plans to raise third-party capital for private funds and transactions, as first reported in late May by peHUB.com, an online affiliate of VCJ.

Much of the fund’s marketing will be aimed at wealthy families and individuals—which is the primary target market of Forbes’ publications—although it also will work to raise money from institutional investors. Financial terms of the arrangement between G2 and Forbes were not disclosed.

G2 recently bought advisory firm Vesey Street Partners, adding former Lehman Brothers executives to its roster. It is among the Wall Street firms taking advantage of turmoil in financial services to hire bankers and expand in anticipation of an economic rebound.

Heading up the effort at Forbes Private Capital Group is Todd Morley, founder of G2. He previously co-founded Guggenheim Partners, which now has $100 billion in assets under management.

I think [the Forbes family] saw this as a natural segue from the media business into the financial services business.

Todd Morley

“I have a social relationship with some of the Forbes family from my time with Guggenheim, so they are very familiar with what we did over there,” Morley says. “I think they saw this as a natural segue from the media business into the financial services business.”

The placement team comes from Guggenheim Partners and is led by David Conrod. Other members include Mel Chez and Colin Dinneen. The team will continue to work on existing third-party engagements, and also will raise money for future Guggenheim-branded vehicles.

Morley says that Forbes Private Capital Group occasionally will help raise G2-branded funds. —Dan Primack