New U.S. Treasury Dep't report titled “The Next Phase of Government Financial Stabilization and Rehabilitation Policies.” Download it here, or read it after the jump...
1 min read · 15 September 2009
CalPERS, the nation's largest public pension system, has updated its website to include private equity performance data through the end of Q1. Finally! The refresh should have occured following an August 17 investment committee meeting, but neither official schedules nor my constant pestering -- just ask the CalPERS press office -- could make the system's webmaster go faster than glacial. Overall, the private equity portfolio had $42.4 billion in private equity exposure as of March 31 (down 31.4% year-to-year). This includes 629 active fund interests, including leveraged buyout funds, venture capital funds, growth equity funds, mezzanine funds, funds-of-funds and distressed funds. You can download the whole lot of them (with IRRs) by clicking here. If that's too many numbers, what follows is some data on CalPERS' five largest holdings (by
1 min read · 14 September 2009
I am pleased to announce that the next peHUB Shindig will be in Dallas on October 14. That’s the night before Buyouts Texas, and also smack dab in the middle of Red River Rivalry week. You can get tickets and more info here. Per usual, no content – just cocktails & conversation with other members of Big D’s private equity and venture capital communities. Tickets cost just $10 each, with proceeds being donated to a local charity that will be selected by event attendees (you can nominate a charity when you register). I urge you to get yours soon, since these shindigs tend to sell out. A very special thanks to our Dallas Shindig sponsors: Landmark Partners, New Capital Partners and StaffOne.
1 min read · 14 September 2009
NB Private Equity Partners (fka Lehman Brothers Private Equity) gave a fairly detailed investor presentation dated Sept. 10. Download it here.
1 min read · 14 September 2009
Boston-based private equity firm ABRY Partners is expected to close its leveraged buyout of Grande Communications on Monday, peHUB has learned. ABRY will take around a 75% stake in Grande, a San Marcos, Texas-based broadband services provider, at an enterprise value of approximately $270 million. The remaining 25% will be held by Grande's venture capital shareholders, who have invested more than $340 million since 2000. We're told that ABRY will finance around half of the transaction with debt, which was arranged by SunTrust Bank. The new facility would wipe out $200 million of existing Grande junk bonds that date back to 2004.
2 min read · 11 September 2009
Yesterday we spotted a regulatory filing from something called Factery.net, which had raised $1.25 million in VC funding. No investor info on the document, and the only listed executive was search marketing vet Paul Pedersen. We described it as an "online answer engine," based on the alpha product up on Factery's website. Now a source has filled us in with additional details, including how Factery's current website isn't really representative of its product plans.
2 min read · 11 September 2009
Last summer, Boston Scientific agreed to sell a portfolio of 53 venture capital investments to Saints Capital for approximately $100 million. It was the largest-ever direct secondary sale of healthcare interests, but peHUB has learned that the process was almost derailed by a separate suitor that didn’t have the money to back up its offer. That bidder was Omega Funds, a healthcare-focused direct secondaries shop with offices in Boston and Switzerland. Kind of ironically, Omega Funds is actually a fundless sponsor, which means that it doesn't have an existing pool of capital from which to draw. The firm is currently embroiled in a legal tête-à-tête with some of its former employees and advisors – it’s sued them for alleged breaches of noncompete agreements – which is where details of the busted Boston Scientific bid first emerged. In a response to Omega’s original complaint, defendants Nessan Bermingham and Arthur Rosenthal both submitted affidavits claiming that Omega boss Ottello Stampacchia had claimed that Omega had “oversubscribed” financing commitments to purchase the Boston Scientific direct portfolio (an indirect portfolio of LP interests was sold separately to Paul Capital). They both also say that those representations proved to be false.
3 min read · 11 September 2009
What follows are six VC deals culled from recent Regulation D filings with the SEC. None of them has been otherwise disclosed: * DisplayLink Corp., a Palo Alto, Calif.-based fabless semiconductor manufacturer that focuses on network displays, has raised $8 million in fourth-round funding. The company previously raised around $51 million, from Atlas Venture, Balderton Capital, DAG Ventures and
2 min read · 10 September 2009
Mike Hirschland of Polaris Venture Partners recently blogged about how startups sometimes commit suicide by pushing "entrepreneurs" aside for "executives." It caught the eye of the Reuters video folks, who asked me to answer a few related questions:
1 min read · 09 September 2009
Law firm Goodwin Procter's September financial services alert includes info on proposed changes to FAS 157 and OCC interpretive letters on collective investment funds. Download it here.
1 min read · 09 September 2009
