Weekly round-up: Privatisation spells opportunity

After years of financial instability, several European governments are offloading assets to bring down burdensome deficits. With several strong assets potentially up for grabs, unquote" explored the prospects posed to private equity by privatisation. But a lack of transparency could mean opportunities are hard to find, according to Alvarez & Marsal managing director Ajay Rawal, and pricing the uncovered assets remains challenging: "Pricing is one of the main challenges. Working out an asset's valuation needs to take into account how the asset will be managed; if the government will hold onto a stake; the speed of the sell-down and the scale of the investment required as well as the level of restructuring required."

New discoveries in the Barents Sea have caused the Norwegian oil & gas market to look north for new opportunities. The opening window of opportunity has seen several private equity players reposition in anticipation of improved dealflow in the sector. "The extraction pace sets the tone and steers all other activity within the oil & gas sector, including M&A," explains Marcus Planting-Bergloo, partner at Segulah. "There is a clear trend of the Nordic oil industry moving north. It's important for all players to position themselves well to be a part of the Barents Sea boom in order to follow their clients." But can new players in the space match the knowledge and know-how of local heavyweights?

New methods to manage defined benefit (DB) pension responsibilities are enticing private equity firms to consider hitherto unattractive investment opportunities. Nick Griggs, partner at Barnett Waddingham, explored the potential impact on private equity dealflow driven by changes in pension responsibilities.

That's all from me this week but if you have any comments on this week's analysis, please send your thoughts to amy.king@incisivemedia.com.

You can continue to follow me and the rest of the unquote" team via @unquotenews for all the latest private equity and venture capital updates, and of course on unquote.com.

Amy King
Senior Reporter, unquote"

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