Making lemonade

01 May 2008

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The market continues to be challenging - deals are harder to find, and take longer to complete, while securing debt remains a major challenge. This issue's feature examines the situation more closely (pages 15-16). Other difficulties arise from the competition: strategic buyers are cash rich and do not have to focus on IRRs, meaning they can still pay high prices

While this means that trade often makes for strong competition in auctions, there is an upside: they are also buyers when private equity houses sell, and they are eager to buy at the moment. German companies are looking to invest and acquire rivals (see Permira's debitel AG being sold to freenet AG (page 50)), re-acquire corporate orphans that they sold off years ago (EQT Partners' stake in Tognum AG went to Daimler AG (page 51)), while others complement their own offering by integrating niche players (SHS selling Novosis AG to Schweizerhall Holding AG).

The public markets are another source of deals, with a number of heavyweights having taken stakes in listed companies (see cover). This shift in focus to exits and to the public markets for sources of deals shows that the industry is making lemonade out of the market's current abundance of lemons.

Yours sincerely,

Mareen Goebel, Editor, Deutsche unquote"

Tel: +44 20 7004 7462

mareen.goebel@incisivemedia.com.