News in brief

Platina launches new asset management company

Platina Partners, a private equity fund manager specialising in renewable energy and buyouts in turnaround situations, has launched a new asset management company, Engineering Renewables Ltd (ERL).

The new company will oversee the development, construction, financial management and operational pipeline of Platina's renewable energy funds.

ERL has been formed from the merger of Your Energy Services, Platina's renewable energy company, and the project delivery arm of BVG Associates.

Patrick Geraets, who has been appointed technical director of ERL, will lead a team of 12 engineers. The new company will focus on delivering Platina's global project portfolio of more than 1,000 MW of renewable energy projects.

Platina invests in all forms of renewable energy technologies including wind, biomass, small-scale hydro and solar.

Pantheon sells fund interests

PIP, the London-listed investment trust of Pantheon Ventures, has sold a number of its fund interests in an effort to boost the company's liquidity to meet its commitments.

A significant percentage of the fund's sold interests were unfunded commitments, totalling £154m. This will effectively reduce PIP's unfunded commitments from £687m to £533m.

The quoted private equity fund-of-funds anticipates a loss of approximately £68m on the holding value of these assets.

Managing partner Andrew Lebus, cited in the company statement, expects these transactions to be "sufficient to enable [PIP] to finance all remaining commitments".

Terra Firma pumps £28m into EMI

UK buyout firm Terra Firma has reportedly injected £28m into beleaguered music group EMI for the second time in six months.

The buyout house is thought to have previously injected a similar amount into the company in March. It is reported that EMI has breached the banking covenants related to its £2.6bn debt pile.

Terra Firma de-listed the record label in September 2007, investing £1.5bn of equity into the group in a deal valued at more than £3bn. At the time the business was recording an annual loss of £260m against revenues of £1.75bn.

Earlier this year, Terra Firma reportedly wrote down its investment by half as part of a move that saw its wider portfolio written down by around EUR1.4bn. The investor subsequently returned to LPS approximately EUR70m of performance fees generated since 2004, with Guy Hands sacrificing his EUR40m bonus.

Buffini steps down as Permira chairman

It is understood that Permira chairman Damon Buffini is to step down as chairman in the coming year.

He intends to stay on as full-time partner and focus on the management of portfolio companies and in the search for new deals.

Buffini has faced criticism from some commentators in the last year over the decision to offer tough terms to investors wanting to scale back their commitment to the Permira's most recent fund, though there were also those who heralded the decision as a brave and necessary step.

There has also been criticism over the underperformance of some of the firm's investments, which have contributed to the fund being written down by a reported 36%.

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