Southern Europe unquote"

The pre-holiday rush in Southern Europe has delivered a string of small- to medium-sized buyouts in Southern Europe, such as the sale of USP Hospitales by Mercapital to Cinven for EUR675m. However, private equity seems to be missing out on the most anticipated deals of this year. After dropping out of the Alitalia deal due to regulatory and bureaucratic hurdles, Texas Pacific Group (TPG) has found similar constraints in the competitive process for Iberia. Even after partnering with domestic heavyweights Vista Capital, Ibersuizas and Quercus Equity, as well as sector player British Airways, the consortium was required to list the information they require from Iberia in order to make a formal offer. The airline's board, which includes Caja Madrid, BBVA and El Corte Ingles, will then decide which information should be disclosed.

Also in Spain, Imperial Tobacco has offered EUR50 per share for sector business Altadis, surpassing CVC's offer by 36%. On the fundraising side, Spanish house N+1 (formerly Nmas 1) has finally launched its second vehicle following much speculation on internal reorganisation and a staff exodus earlier this year.

In Italy, Natexis Cape listed Cape Live, an evergreen-like investment company, which is designed to act as both a source of capital for Cape's existing funds and as a pool of cash for new investments. Marketed as 'private equity for all', 30% of the fund's 6.9 million shares were allocated to the general public.

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