Private Equity · Profile from Private Equity Research Companion
Cerberus Capital Management
New York-based alternative investment firm founded in 1992 by Stephen Feinberg and William Richter. Built on distressed debt, it became famous for control investments in troubled companies and banks — backed by an in-house operating bench — and infamous for Chrysler and GMAC. Its Albertsons and BAWAG investments rank among the most profitable in PE history.
At a glance
- Founded
- 1992
- Founders
- Stephen A. Feinberg; William L. Richter
- HQ
- New York, New York (offices across the US, Europe and Asia)
- Strategies
- Distressed debt and control private equity; non-performing loan (NPL) portfolios; real estate; direct lending (Cerberus Business Finance); bank recapitalisations; supply-chain/defence-tech investing
- AUM
- ~$60–65bn+ (firm-reported, mid-2020s; approximate)
- Operating model
- Cerberus Operations and Advisory Company (COAC) — a large in-house team of operating executives
- Notable deals
- Aozora Bank, Mervyn's, Albertsons/Safeway, GMAC, BAWAG, Chrysler, Remington/Freedom Group, DynCorp, Steward Health Care, Project Eagle, HSH Nordbank
- 2025 development
- Feinberg confirmed as US Deputy Secretary of Defense (March 2025); divested/stepped away from Cerberus
12 deals and moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2003
Aozora Bank
Distressed Bank Control Stake
2004
Mervyns
Corporate Carve-Out / OpCo-PropCo LBO
2006
Albertsons
Consortium Break-Up Acquisition
2006
BAWAG PSK
Distressed Bank Acquisition
2006
GMAC
51% Control Stake Carve-Out
2007
Chrysler
80.1% Carve-Out from DaimlerChrysler
2007
Remington Freedom Group
Firearms Roll-Up
2010
DynCorp International
Take-Private
2010
Steward Health Care
Nonprofit Hospital Conversion
2014
Project Eagle
NPL Portfolio Acquisition
2014
Safeway
Sponsor-Backed Take-Private
2018
HSH Nordbank
State Bank Privatisation