The year of the portfolio

Then Lehman collapsed - and its momentous importance can be felt in expressions that are already being widely used, such as "post-Lehman". For months, the very fabric of the financial world was unravelling at breathtaking speed and it was very nearly impossible to make any predictions about the future. While we gathered a few voices from the region stating their expectations for 2009, most approached the topic with caution. Post-Lehmann, making predictions is a risky proposition. The mainstream newspapers especially have embarked on a downwards race - each one publishing more glum predictions for 2009 than its peers. Bad news is good news for the media profession, and end-of-the-world scenarios have lost nothing of their fascination (even unquote" notices this - click-through rates on our email alerts reveal disaster-loving readers).

The only prediction that everybody - whether on the side of LPs, banks, advisers or GPs - would agree on is that 2009 is shaping up to be the year of the portfolio. Restructuring is under way in many, or even most, portfolios, and GPs are battening down the hatches to protect the value of their assets. This is also often activity that is less public than acquiring and divesting companies and happens mostly under the radar. Nevertheless, the industry is far from idle, and many assume that once the prices have come down, activity will pick up again, as lack of liquidity will be less crippling and other types of deals than the classical leveraged buyout become more feasible and more attractive.

Yours sincerely, Mareen Goebel

Editor, Deutsche unquote"

Tel: +44 20 7004 7462

mareen.goebel@incisivemedia.com.

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