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Most of Affinity's investors came through connections Kushner made while serving in the White House.
Jared Kushner’s biggest private equity win to date is an Israeli business he tried to buy more than a decade ago. In 2014, Kushner was 33 and the CEO of Kushner Companies, the New York City-based real estate firm co-founded by his father and grandfather. In search of new investments, he targeted Israeli insurance and financial services firm Phoenix. Kushner entered into a preliminary agreement to buy 47% of the company’s shares, financed in part by a loan from the seller. It all looked promising for a while. But regulatory hurdles soon proved too much, and the offer fell through.
Ten years later, he got a second chance. Through Affinity Partners, the private equity firm he founded in early 2021, he has spent roughly a quarter of a billion dollars buying nearly 10% of Phoenix’s stock as of July 2024. One of Affinity’s biggest bets to date, it’s also the firm’s “best investment,” with Kushner boasting that it has already generated a more than 9-fold return.
Thanks in part to such bets, as well as his knack for raising funds from high-profile Middle Eastern backers, Kushner is now a billionaire. Forbes estimates his fortune at just over $1 billion, up from at least $900 million a year ago. He joins the ranks of billionaires alongside his brother Josh (net worth: $5.2 billion) and his father-in-law, President Donald Trump ($7.3 billion).
Kushner left his family’s real estate business in 2017 to join the White House as a senior adviser during Trump’s first term. That role took him to the Middle East, where he eventually helped negotiate the Abraham Accords, a series of normalization agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and others. In January 2021, the same month Trump left the White House, Kushner founded Affinity Partners in the Miami suburb of Sunny Isles Beach. In total, he has raised $4.6 billion, including $1.5 billion last year from two of his previous backers, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund and Abu Dhabi-based Lunate, part of the Royal Group of Emirati ruler Sheikh Tahnoon.
Kushner owns 100% of Affinity, which Forbes currently values at $215 million, up from $170 million in October. That makes it Kushner's second-largest asset after his 20% stake in his family's Kushner Companies, worth $560 million.
He has a broad portfolio and is focused entirely on Affinity. Private equity is a new field for Kushner, whose previous expertise was largely in real estate. Perhaps wisely, he started slowly, spending less than $500 million by 2023. But he is starting to ramp up his investments significantly: Affinity had publicly invested more than $2 billion as of April and is on track to invest at least $1 billion this year alone. The firm manages $4.8 billion in assets, according to its most recent financial statement, filed in March. It now counts about 25 investments, including 22 portfolio companies, in at least eight countries across industries from fitness technology to car leasing.
Among its latest investments: Affinity bought an 8% stake in U.K. digital bank OakNorth for an undisclosed amount in August. The firm is also getting in on the artificial intelligence boom. It recently backed artificial intelligence infrastructure firm Universal AI, which raised $10 million from a list of high-profile investors including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Israeli-born venture capitalist Elad Gil. And on Wednesday, Kushner and Gil launched a new San Francisco-based artificial intelligence startup, Brain Co., which has already raised $30 million from Affinity, Gil and others, including Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong, LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman and Stripe’s Patrick Collison.
Most of Affinity's investors came through connections Kushner made while serving in the White House. Affinity's backers pay about $60 million a year in fees.
The success of the firm’s portfolio will be determined largely over the long term: While the standard life cycle of a private equity fund is about 10 years, Affinity’s first fund will stretch as long as 13 years. There are some clear early winners, though. One of them is QXO, a building products distribution firm founded by Brad Jacobs, who has already built eight billion-dollar companies. Affinity invested $350 million in the company between July 2024 and April of this year and has achieved a 98% return since its first investment.
Revolut, një bankë dixhitale me seli në Londër, e bashkëthemeluar nga Nik Storonsky dhe Vlad Yatsenko, gjithashtu ka potencial. Affinity investoi në gusht 2024 me një vlerësim prej 45 miliardë dollarësh. Revolut thuhet se ka nisur një shitje të dytë aksionesh që e vlerëson firmën në 75 miliardë dollarë, që do të shënonte një kthim prej 67% në pak më shumë se një vit. Dhe një nga firmat e para që mbështeti Kushner, platforma e reklamave të klasifikuara me seli në Dubai, thuhet se po kërkon të dalë në bursë.
Pastaj është Phoenix, një nga siguruesit e parë izraelitë që u zgjerua në kredi private dhe menaxhim asetesh. Kushner filloi të mendonte të sulmonte përsëri Phoenix në vitin 2022, përpara se sulmi i Hamasit më 7 tetor 2023 të shkatërronte rajonin. Në atë kohë, ai besonte se tregu i aksioneve e kishte nënvlerësuar firmën sepse ajo tregtohej si një kompani e drejtpërdrejtë sigurimi në vend të biznesit të gjenerimit të tarifave që kishte bërë.
Phoenix menaxhon rreth 170 miliardë dollarë asete; Kushner e quan atë "JPMorgan i Izraelit". Që atëherë, tregu është afruar me perspektivën e tij. Çmimi i aksioneve të Phoenix është pothuajse trefishuar, por Kushner shumëfishoi fitimet e tij duke përdorur leva financiare, që do të thotë se kapitali i tij tani vlen nëntë herë më shumë se sa investoi fillimisht.
Kushner nuk ka një rol zyrtar në Phoenix, por mban atë që ai e quan "një dialog shumë aktiv me kompaninë". Ai takohet me ta çdo disa javë, më shpesh se mbështetësit e tjerë të Phoenix, për të diskutuar përditësimet e kompanisë, trendet e tregut dhe idetë për t'u lidhur me investitorët dhe menaxherët e aseteve.
Jo të gjitha bastet e Kushnerit kanë qenë të suksesshme. Mosaic, një huadhënës me seli në Kaliforni për projekte diellore rezidenciale që Affinity i mbështeti në vitin 2022, paraqiti kërkesë për falimentim sipas Kapitullit 11 në qershor. Dhe zhvillimi i tij luksoz i planifikuar prej 500 milionë dollarësh në vendin e ish-selisë së ushtrisë jugosllave në kryeqytetin serb të Beogradit, i cili do të përfshijë një hotel me markën Trump dhe tre kulla luksoze të zhvilluara në partneritet me zhvilluesin miliarder me seli në Dubai, Mohamed Alabbar, u përball me një pengesë në maj. (Vendi u bombardua nga NATO në vitin 1999 dhe rrënojat e tij u caktuan si vend i trashëgimisë kulturore; prokurorët vendas njoftuan se një zyrtar kulturor kishte falsifikuar një dokument kyç që i lejonte qeverisë të hiqte dorë nga statusi i trashëgimisë së vendit.)
Duke parë përpara, Affinity vazhdon të kërkojë marrëveshje. Për shembull, Kushner ende po planifikon të investojë para në një kompani të pazbuluar meksikane të infrastrukturës, një veprim që është vonuar nga tarifat e Trump. Ai po shtyn që firma të blejë më shumë pajisje amerikane përpara se të angazhohet.
Nearly five years into his tenure at Affinity, Kushner is still a minor figure in the world of private equity. Despite some wins, it's still too early to judge the success of the firm's portfolio in an industry that measures returns over a decade. But that hasn't deterred wealthy Middle Eastern investors from pouring more money into its funds. If that continues, his investment history may not matter much to his returns. / Adapted from "Pamphlet" by "Forbes"
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