Private Equity
George Roberts, the "R" in KKR, said his firm expects a loss in its portfolio this year, the firm's first since 1990, Reuters reports. Not surprising after Blackstone's worse-than-expected quarterly earnings report last week. But that's a good thing, he said. Roberts predicted that even with the current economic and financial market woes, private equity would outperform conventional investments over the long term. And he told a ballroom of private equity executives that they were lucky to be
2 min read · 13 November 2008
2 min read · 13 November 2008
Last Night's Party: Was apparently boisterous and fun, with undertones of fear, worry, and depression, according to this D.C. finance blog. Can't wait for tonight, see you all there, New York! The Craigslist Effect: How To Get People To Pay For Classified Ads, a topic explored by Patricia Nakache of VC firm Trinity. Go For It: It's now acceptable, apparently, to release intimidating press releases. Huntsman did it today, telling CS and DB it plans to read their emails in an attempt to prove that Apollo and Hexion secretly plotted to back out of the Huntsman deal. Better than CARP: Ft Alphaville proposes the less funny but more accurate "TERP."
1 min read · 12 November 2008
First of all, should it now be called "CARP"? (Consumer replacing Troubled. This suggestion from Brian Sullivan of Fox Business News.) Following Dan’s comments this morning on the news of official changes to TARP, I’ve got a few comments collected from various panels, conversations and questions at the conference I’m attending. -Why is TARP requiring a private investment before a company qualifies? Well, it’s a way to validate the public investment, one person said. Having a third party investment thesis validates the business’s existence and worthiness of government money, essentially. “That was even true prior to WaMu,” one person said. -Isn’t there a chicken & egg issue there? Possibly. It's also possible ...
1 min read · 12 November 2008
The only area less active than lending and deal-doing these days is exits, so I've decided to liveblog the panel focused on that topic. The Panel: Middle Market's Momentum and the Future of Exit Alternatives Panelists: Thomas R. Callahan, MD Lincolnshire Management, J. Hamilton Crawford of Houlihan Lokey, David Turner, Head of PE at Gaurdian, Jonathan Peskoff, MD at FBR, Jay Rothman, Partner, Foley & Lardner 10:55 Lincolnshire has sold 8 portfolio companies in the last 24 months. Callahan says seller pricing hasn't come down. I'd say over the course of this conference, only one person for every ten I talk to says seller pricing actually has come down. (UPDATE: See below for that one person) 10:56 The moderator tells us this panel is supposed to be the positive one. Let's see if that actually happens.
5 min read · 12 November 2008
So Says Goldman: Newspapers are dead, Wall Street is dead, alternative energy is dead, and mattresses, forget it. Zombies Are Self-Ambulatory: Dealbreaker has a problem with Bloomberg calling AIG a Zombie. Best Photo Illustration Ever: Accompanied by a pretty good article, too. Michael Lewis marks the (long awaited) end of the Wall Street era, a time he predicted would die soon after he left it, after he wrote Liar's Poker. He was wrong, by about 20 years. The Big Money: Debunks the buzz about a genetically engineered "healthy beer" created by three college students (who happen to be underage).
1 min read · 11 November 2008
And it’s probably true. After losing an estimated 18% to 25% this year, with much of it in U.S. investments, they’re not exactly rushing to write any more checks for us. According to panelists at The Deal’s 2009 PE Outlook Conference, the SWFs have retreated, licking their wounds, from further investments in U.S. firms, companies and funds. They’re shifting their focuses back to domestic investing. And it’s not just a temporary bout on the sidelines. There’s a fundamental shift going on in the way they deploy their capital, the panelists said. Fortunately, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
2 min read · 11 November 2008
2 min read · 11 November 2008
3 min read · 11 November 2008
Hold Your Breath: More than 80% of Silicon Valley's 150 largest public companies have employees with "underwater" stock options. Meaning, they can't buy stock at the price their company is trading at these days. Top 25 Private Equity Schools: Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, University of Chicago, Northwestern, the list goes on... Leveraged Loans Are Taking a Beating: But we all knew that. Just How Leveraged Are We: Carlyle's Randal Quarles provides some insight. And guess what, he uses the "D" word. Speaking Of The D Word: Young New Yorkers are partying like its 1929 and Depression-era art and clothing styles are blowing up, BusinessWeek reports. It's translating into marketing campaigns for some companies.
2 min read · 11 November 2008
