David Toll

Top private equity surprises of 2013

At our Buyouts Texas conference in December, we asked a variety of conference participants the biggest surprise of the year affecting the private equity industry. Herewith, a roundup of their responses:

LPs reward Atlas Holdings with performance-based carry

Terms and conditions may have become more LP-friendly in recent years. But that doesn’t mean limited partners won’t offer a sweetener to encourage exceptional performance.

Arsenal acquires drug development software company; add-ons ahead

Aresnal Capital, the New York mid-market shop, this week closed the acquisition of Certara, a supplier of model-based software to biopharmaceutical companies for drug development and data analytics. Terms were not disclosed.

Appetite for U.S. mid-market, small-market funds will be strong in 2014, survey finds

Investors look beyond IRR, investment multiple

Investors trying to decide which funds to back are putting more emphasis on realized returns, and deploying new tools to understand just how much sponsors beat or fall short of public equity benchmarks, according to interviews with advisers, sponsors, academics and vendors.

With partnership expenses, pay attention to who picks up the tab

As partnership terms arguably become more standardized, both general and limited partners would be well-served to pay attention to areas where industry practice remains all over the map—and fund expenses is a prime example.

ILPA due diligence questionnaire scores 3,000 downloads

One of the biggest headaches for general partners during fundraising is having to contend with dozens of separate information requests from prospective investors. The Institutional Limited Partners Association may have a solution.

Cambridge Associates sued by rival over performance calculation

Starting with the second-quarter edition of its private equity index and benchmarks report, adviser Cambridge Associates published numbers that let investors compare the performance of private equity with public stock indices over a variety of time periods. Now rival Capital Dynamics says the calculation behind those numbers infringes one of its patents.

Both bidders, targets can point to gains in key deal term, study shows

Advisers craft energy funds of funds for investors

Wondering what’s hot with institutional investors? Keep an eye on what products advisers are creating for them. And right now at least two are in the market with energy funds of funds.