News

Agassi’s School Partner Aims for $1 Billion With New Firm

By Nadja Brandt and John Gittelsohn (Bloomber Businessweek) – Bobby Turner, who runs a school-construction fund with tennis champion Andre Agassi, has started a new firm seeking to raise as much as $1 billion for charter schools, workforce housing and health-care facilities.

“It’s a battle-tested model,” Turner, who also raised $2 billion in real estate funds with retired basketball star Earvin “Magic” Johnson from 2000 to 2008, said in an interview at the Bloomberg News office in Los Angeles. “I’ve got a lot of experience in raising pioneering funds.”

The goal is to generate a profit for investors while serving a higher public purpose, said Turner, principal and chief executive officer of the new firm. Public-impact investing, which dedicates funds to issues such as education, community development, the environment and health care, has been increasing and is likely to climb further this year, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. and the Global Impact Investing Network, which studied 125 companies that manage a total of $46 billion in such investments.

Link to full article.