When Snap goes public on Thursday, one of the investors closely watching the result will be Rizvi Traverse, the secretive firm that rose to prominence amassing large stakes in Twitter and Square. Chances are Rizvi will do well on the offering—and probably better than people who invested in Rizvi-arranged funds holding Snap stock.
Rizvi put together at least four “special purpose vehicle” funds to buy Snap stock in 2014 and 2015, securities filings show. Fees on at least one of those funds are steep enough to erode investor profits by about a third, according to an analysis of investment-related documents obtained by The Information. That’s assuming Snap sells shares in the IPO at $15, the middle of its proposed pricing range.
