Up-tick ... tick ... tick

Opportunities certainly abound: reckless gambling of previous owners has put companies such as generic drugs maker ratiopharm on the market, while private equity firms are also doubtless picking over the carcasses of major companies such as Arcandor. Indeed, AXA Private Equity just acquired the shopping channel HSE24 from its insolvent parent company. The channel was one of the few jewels of the defunct business and was the subject of a rare competitive auction before the deal was closed. Other sales processes are running as well, but things still take much longer to close than previously.

However, despite the second quarterly increase in a row, investment figures are still way off the numbers recorded even in the first three quarters of 2008 - 14 buyouts in Q3 2009 compared to 34 in Q3 2008. Sceptics of the recovery state that the world's financial markets remain volatile, the banking sector is far from stable, and gold is racing from one all-time-high to the next in what is seen as the next ticking time bomb. Clearly any recovery is little more than the end of the beginning and there are still rough spots ahead that will require ingenuity and skill to successfully traverse.

Yours sincerely,

Mareen Goebel, Editor, Deutsche unquote"

Tel: +44 20 7004 7462

mareen.goebel@incisivemedia.com.

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