TIVP009: Blue Owl Capital (OWL): The Next Blackstone? w/ Shawn O’Malley

In today’s episode, Shawn O’Malley (@Shawn_OMalley_) breaks down Blue Owl Capital (ticker: OWL), an emerging giant in the world of alternative asset management that specializes in private credit. Blue Owl has quickly grown its assets under management to over $230 billion and is one of the few SPACs from 2020 to work out, yet Shawn explores whether the company is a good investment at current prices.

In today’s episode, you’ll learn how Blue Owl was born out of several mergers, how the private credit legend Doug Ostrover has built an extremely high-quality asset-management business with 91% permanent capital, why private asset classes have become so popular in recent years and whether that growth is sustainable, plus so much more!

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IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN

00:00 - Intro

05:11 - How Blue Owl was born out of a merger with Dyal Capital and a SPAC.

05:11 - What the business model for an alternative asset manager looks like.

11:49 - Why alternative investing has ballooned in recent years and whether that growth is sustainable.

29:49 - Why Blue Owl’s permanent capital base is so attractive.

36:23 - How Blue Owl has continued to grow its assets under management through acquisitions.

59:04 - How to untangle Blue Owl’s convoluted corporate structure.

01:03:42 - Why financial services businesses are especially opaque and hard-to-value.

01:08:17 - Whether Shawn adds Blue Owl to The Intrinsic Value Portfolio.

And much, much more!

*Disclaimer: Slight timestamp discrepancies may occur due to podcast platform differences.

BOOKS AND RESOURCES

• Get smarter about valuing businesses in just a few minutes each week through our newsletter, The Intrinsic Value Newsletter.
• The Financial Times’ article on Michael Rees of Dyal Capital.
• Capital Allocators podcast with Douglas Ostrover.
• Chris Panagiotu was my financial-advisory scuttlebutt contact for Blue Owl — checkout his podcast on financial planning.
• Ohio State study on private credit returns.
• See here on