McKinsey & Co. has published results of a survey on global economic conditions. Download it here.
1 min read · 17 September 2009
Bunch of buzz this morning about an FT report that The Carlyle Group is reconsidering its IPO prospects. Actually, more of the buzz might have to do with Carlyle’s denial when asked for comment by one of my Reuters colleagues. In an emailed statement, a spokesman wrote: “Carlyle has no plans to go public and if we ever do go public, it will be a long way off.” A couple quick thoughts: (1) Carlyle has been tacitly considering going public for at least three years. In fact, I distinctly remember David Rubenstein giving a speech in which he compared mega-LBO partnerships to pre-public investment bank partnerships (and I haven’t seen him speak in a long while). So the idea that Carlyle continues to consider an IPO is about as newsworthy as Generalissimo Francisco Franco still being dead.
2 min read · 17 September 2009
Candescent Partners recently co-led an acquisition of Center for Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine, an operator of a dozen advanced-wound centers in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Florida. It was the Boston-based private equity firm's first deal since being (quietly) formed late last year by Steve Jenks and Sandy McGrath, former managing partners with Capital Resource Partners. Jenks says that the transaction, done in partnership with Gemini Investors and Harbert Mezzanine Partners, is representative of the types of deals Candescent is looking for. "We want to invest in healthcare services, business services, software and some selective consumer product services companies -- with an emphasis on the healthcare and business services," Jenks explains. "We publicize that we want companies with between $10 million and $50 million in revenues, but 90% will be
2 min read · 16 September 2009
1 min read · 16 September 2009
The Pennsylvania State Employees' Retirement Board today put out a press release related to recent investment results. It says that the system returned to positive territory in Q2, gaining 5.6% (approx. $1.1b). Download it here.
1 min read · 16 September 2009
The National Venture Capital Association this morning released the 5th version of its study on the economic impact of VC-backed companies on the U.S. economy. You can download it from the NVCA's website, or read it after the jump...
1 min read · 16 September 2009
I did a handful of video spots with Reuters this morning, including this one on my column about Sun Capital Partners enforcing non-compete agreements with laid-off workers:
1 min read · 15 September 2009
Yesterday afternoon, I tweeted my surprise that "some self-funded biz type isn't jumping into the Mass senate race on the Dem side." Apparently Bain Capital's Steve Pagliuca is one of my followers, because news leaked several hours later that he was seriously considering a run at Ted Kennedy's vacated seat. I'm told that candidate Pagliuca is a near-certainty, which raises two questions: (1) How will this affect Bain; and (2) Does he have a shot to win? The first answer is "relatively little." Bain has lots of experience with this sort of thing, based on the electoral ambitions of firm co-founder Mitt Romney. In fact, Romney's first race was for this very seat, against Kennedy back in 1994. That campaign included the regular apparences of laid-off factory workers from a Bain portfolio company, who were none too pleased with the future governor. When Romney ran for president, Bain conducted an in-house investigation to uncover any skeletons from the Romney era (PR or otherwise) that might have embarassed the firm. Expect Bain to do the same again, but for the more recent era.
3 min read · 15 September 2009
Global consultancy Watson Wyatt has published a white paper on private equity fund terms and conditions. This follows a recent guidelines proposal from ILPA, and emphasizes some of the same points. For example, Watson Wyatt writes that "management fees currently represent too high a proportion of a GP's current compensation and are therefore the most significant factor misaligning the interests of a GP relative to those of its LPs." Watson Wyatt also presents some solutions, including budgeted fees (like some VC firms use), installing "European waterfalls" and a ban on portfolio company monitoring fees (amen!). What I'm really waiting for now is some sort of GP justification of current fee structures, other than "because we can." I still believe most LPs would give up some carry for decreased fees.... You can download and/or read the white paper after the jump...
1 min read · 15 September 2009
I spend an unhealthy amount of time with venture capitalists, which means that I’m regularly badgered about creating or joining a startup. During last week’s TechStars event in Boston, for example, it came up in three separate conversations. I’ve got a variety of explanations (excuses?), but none of them involve a lack of consideration. In fact, peHUB was originally conceived as an independent venture. Even had a prominent journalistic partner, and productive conversations with investors. What killed that effort, however, was a noncompete agreement that I (unwittingly) signed when Old Daddy Thomson listed in New York. Its enforceability was questionable, but it wasn’t a battle that I could afford to win, let alone lose. All of this is preamble to establish my bias against noncompete agreements. They often do little more than cause massive headaches while delaying the inevitable (no boss, that’s not preamble). And, regrettably, they are playing a larger and larger role in private equity.
4 min read · 15 September 2009
