Toby Mitchenall
Toby Mitchenall is the Senior Editor, ESG and Sustainability, at PEI Media. He is responsible for New Private Markets, a dedicated intelligence source on impact investing, sustainability and ESG in private markets, and is based in PEI’s London office. Toby was previously a consultant advising private equity firms on marketing and public relations.
Along with those of Stanford and British Columbia, Harvard University’s $37bn endowment has scored top marks for sustainable investment. Harvard's endowment, an active private equity LP, returned 8.6 percent for the fiscal year ended 30 June.
The global mid-market buyout group has upped its investments in buyout and infrastructure deals, despite a roughly 40 percent fall in the total value of its investments over the past five months. The firm’s realisations also slowed significantly.
With deals such as Montagu's acquisition of Biffa earlier this year, private equity buyers have dominated M&A activity among UK business services companies. The sector actually saw an increase in deal flow in the last 12 months, according to recent research.
The firm has attracted another heavyweight media and telecoms veteran to its 12-strong advisory team. Sun Microsystems’ Peter Currie joins the likes of Lorenzo Pellicioli, Lord Eatwell and Ron Sandler.
UK mid-market activity is now at the same level as it was in 2005, but advisory teams at Deloitte and Close Brothers, both mid-market players, have been hiring this week, with the former luring ex-private equity professional Liam Camburn.
The EU’s internal markets commissioner has highlighted the importance of private equity in stabilising the European economy and distanced the asset class from the causes of current financial markets turbulence. Charlie McCreevy’s comments come on the heels of a European Parliament vote in favour of industry regulations.
The buyout giant has said ‘a number of market conditions’ caused its investment portfolio to lose $1.2bn in value in the first half of 2008, while the firm’s compensation costs for an expanding stable of employees grew by 80 percent.
Dutch billionaire media mogul ‘Joop’ van den Ende has sold 60 percent of his theatre company’s ticketing business to ING’s captive private equity arm Parcom in a transaction that will create Europe’s largest independent ticket retailer.
The UK government-backed cleantech investor has co-invested with British firm Catapult Venture Managers in 4energy, a producer of efficient refrigeration devices for industrial electronic equipment.
Unprepared to up their offer of 450 pence per share, Providence, Carlyle and Blackstone have walked away from the deal for London-based publisher Informa.