Blog Post
Slow but steady
From one month to another, deal figures remain surprisingly similar. Each issue brings its fair share of large deals involving pan-European funds showing interest in Dutch, Belgian or Luxembourg-based companies. They will be highly publicised by, and...
Anchors away
Headlines are rife with updates on the credit crunch and every week a new bank is said to be in need of some sort of a bailout in the US or UK, yet somehow some positive news has been sailing through on the fundraising front. Recent closings of funds...
Fund-a-mentals for 2008
The French private equity market has had a limited amount of deals completed recently, especially in the large LBO space. There was, however, one buyout of note: Hellman & Friedman signed a definitive agreement to acquire Saipem's 30% share of Gaztransport...
The sleeping giant stirs
For years, Germany has been viewed as the sleeping giant - at least in terms of potential for private equity investments. Many GPs see vast potential, but the country has so far not quite lived up to these expectations. Then came the credit crunch, and...
TUPE opposition discredits the industry
The Chancellor's Budget contained few surprises. There was good news for VCTs which it was announced will be exempt from VAT on management fees from 1 October 2008. It is estimated that this will free up to ТЃ10m a year to be invested in smaller companies....
Defying logic
'Crisis' is perhaps too harsh a word to describe the current financial picture. There are certainly less mega-deals, but they are always fairly lumpy. The real engine of growth in Southern Europe is at the mid-market level, where although activity has...
Opportunities for innovation
A survey published at the end of January by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reported a very positive situation for the Netherlands. Despite stagnation at the beginning of the century, the Dutch economy is now in good...
Carry on up
It seems things could be looking up for French private equity. We are only in the early months of 2008, a year which has been roundly touted as likely to be one of the toughest and most testing for the industry for some time, yet there has already been...
David and Goliath
As the larger European and US banks are still struggling to offload debt estimated to be worth $150bn off their books, smaller local banks which have been less affected by the credit crisis, are stepping up their game. UK and US GPs are increasingly turning...
Stealing the spotlight
One would be forgiven for thinking Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is stealing the spotlight from the DACH region. Last August a Polish cable operator, Aster, was able to pull off a EUR415m recapitalisation despite the fact the rest of Europe was suffering...
Voluntary surveys not enough
The Economic Impact of Private Equity in the UK, an annual survey commissioned by the BVCA has just been published. Last year at the Treasury Select Committee hearings, a number of trade union representatives grumbled about the lack of evidence that private...
Divide to conquer
The BVCA has again met with the TUC to continue roundtable discussions begun last year. The dialogue in which the industry is now engaging is admirable. The BVCA is doing everything it can to ensure it is a successful lobby group for the British private...
Maintaining momentum
Benelux has managed to weather the storm whipped up by the summer's credit crunch. Last year's results show the region's stability (91 deals in 2006 against 97 in 2007). The average deal value figures in 2006 exceeded those for 2007 (EUR300.5m against...
Rougher times
The first month of 2008 has been far from uneventful. The most significant event was the sale of MySQL to SUN Microsystems for $1bn (page 26), marking one of Europe's best venture exits. The Nordic region has now placed itself firmly on the map as one...
Off to a fresh start
The new year is bringing new challenges. New laws came into effect on 1 January in Germany and similar legislation is being worked on in Austria
Good news in bad times
Recent drops in the stock market continue to remind us of the uncertainty looming in the finance sector. Nevertheless, not all the news is bad
A healthy outlook
After mounting speculation over when the market would turn following years of excess, leverage, returns and sheer volume, 2007 will be remembered as the year when it finally came to a halt.
Think positive
The liquidity troubles which dominated the latter half of 2007 had looked set to spill over into 2008. However, a destabilisation of the private equity industry in 2008 does not feel imminent. Private equity is cyclical and its investments are often much...
Unnecessary uncertainty
A recent BVCA study reported that the UK private equity industry generated ТЃ5.4bn for the financial and professional services sector in the 2006/07 financial year.
Bargain hunting
In recent times, quoted companies have presented a real headache to acquire and have accounted for a tiny proportion of dealflow - there were seven take-privates in 2006 and there have been 12 in 2007. If the public markets' focus on share price continues...
Chin up
The new year has seen the broadsheets bust out tales of evaporating dealflow. According to non-specialist publications, the private equity industry has ground to a halt. While stories of doom and gloom about an asset class that has hitherto been very...
Against the gloom
There is a lot of talk about the credit crunch reverberating through the market. The transparency issue looms as well. The interdependence of financial markets and a potential US recession are on everybody's mind. From this, we could assume that insecurity...
Where there's a will, there's a way
Motivated by the industry's relentless urge to complete more deals, private equity professionals and their bankers are scrambling to find new ways around the obstacles they face. The credit crunch has shaken up the leveraged finance world, but crises...
Change and survival
Deals arranged before the summer are still completing in Spain and Italy, albeit behind schedule. Some of them have even been fortunate enough to benefit from ephemeral instruments such as portable financing (see Deal in Focus, page 28). Nowadays, there...