Blog Post
Busy month signals vacation season
In the run up to the holiday season there has been a fair amount of activity in the French market. AXA completed a PIPE, two exits and a buyout highlighting its flexibility. Turenne Capital has also been particularly active this month completing four...
Summer heat hits the markets
"You'll ease into the job. The summer months are always quiet in the Nordics," or so I was told as I started covering private equity markets in the region at the beginning of July. However, the market proved us wrong: this issue features 22 deals and...
Tough at the top
The prevailing opinion in the private equity market today is that it's not a good time to be a large buyout fund manager. With a 'sweet spot' a long way up the value chain, finding suitable targets is a tough job and convincing banks to back a transaction...
Commitment issues
Establishing the true nature of LP investment intentions is a difficult task in the current market. Coller Capital's recent private equity Barometer suggested that a majority of LPs were concerned that as GPs find it more difficult to allocate money to...
A new breath
What interesting months we have had lately. Despite a sombre economic and financial ambience, the threat of a new tax law currently in discussion in the Dutch lower house that will dramatically raise carried interests, the industry is performing tenaciously...
Growing pains
The mid-market appears to be in relative good health and Southern Europe continues to clock up deals - even sizeable ones: as highlighted by the EUR1.1bn injection into Italian telecom holding Weather Investments by Apax, Madison Dearborn and TA Associates....
Return of the large LBO
Large buyouts seem to have much in common with buses; you wait for one for ages and then two come at once. This is the case this month with the largest deals of the year on the verge of being completed within a week of each other. Both companies are incidentally...
Who's afraid of paper tigers?
This month, the Bundestag passed MoRaKG, the Law on the Modernisation of Framework Conditions for Venture Capital and Equity Investments. Intended to provide the venture capital sector with an internationally competitive legal framework, the new regulations...
Expanding horizons
With Western markets bruised and battered from the credit crunch, coupled with rising inflation and slower growth, buyout and venture funds are spreading their wings to emerging Europe, where the markets have largely escaped the global gloom. This was...
The early bird ..
With much talk surrounding the uncertain economic outlook and the subsequent drop-off in buyout deals, activity in the early-stage segment has tended to be overlooked. While this space has its well-documented problems, the volume of deals in recent weeks...
Caution the watchword
The post-CGT slow-down is now most certainly upon us, according to my inbox. Now, this may not be the best way of taking the temperature of the private equity market but in the absence of other reliable indicators it will have to do. The last few weeks...
Some old, some new
Italy and Spain both reported record-breaking figures for private equity transactions during 2007. News might not be so rosy this time next year however; across Europe, sector reports underline the considerable slowdown following the credit crisis. Yet...
The end of the golden age?
People in the industry talk about 2005, 2006 and 2007 as years of splendorous wonders that brought fantastic investment opportunities with amazing returns, essentially due to easy access to debt. The credit crunch last summer has seriously cooled down...
Playing on strengths
The DACH region is well set to benefit from a venture renaissance. Already, DACH comes second in Europe after the UK in terms of value and number of transactions (see cover). As more LPs and funds seek to invest in cleantech, green tech and renewable...
Black gold
The oil & gas sector seems to be the winning segment in the turbulent financial markets of late. As oil prices continues to soar, more and more buyout houses are turning their heads to the industry. In April, 25% of all global buyouts were for companies...
People in glass houses ..
Private equity firms buying back the debt that supports their own deals has recently come in for criticism. Europe's trade group for the syndicated loan market, the London-based Loan Market Association, is expected to propose a series of measures that...
The pension battleground
In February, a poll of more than 250 trustees of company final salary pension schemes found that 72% would be concerned at the prospect of being acquired by a buyout house. Trustees were concerned that a private equity sponsor would weaken the covenant...
The road to succession
PricewaterhouseCoopers' 2007/2008 global family business survey shows intriguing results; one issue of particular interest is leadership succession in family-owned businesses. According to the results, half the respondents anticipated that their business...
En garde ..
This month has seen an encouraging increase in the deal flow. The most prominent deal was Apax Partners and LBO France's acquisition of a 70% stake in Maison du Monde which has an enterprise value of around EUR435m. Also this month Carlyle's LBO of Numericable...
Making lemonade
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:...
Necessity is the mother of invention
Last year was a record one for Italy, which reported an increase of 12.5% in deals over 2006 figures. Spain reported similar success. However, we have already seen indications of a reduction in terms of volume and value of operations in Q1 2008
Distressed assets
The economic slowdown and liquidity freeze has put a strain on portfolio companies, increasing the fear of bankruptcies. In the US, where the credit crisis has hit the hardest, the list of private equity-backed companies filing for Chaper 11 is growing...
Profiting from consumer debt
Knowing which businesses to back in a stuttering economy and a more illiquid environment requires greater caution, skill, foresight and luck than in buoyant economic times. With sterling hitting a record low against the euro, the property market suffering...
Squeeze those suppliers
With the new capital gains tax (CGT) regime upon us, a clearer picture should emerge of the mismatch between vendor and buyer price expectations. It has been suggested that the CGT changes have given a false picture of deal flow, especially in the lower...