Friday Letter: Shipping News

A glossy report from Barclays Private Equity (BPE) was sent to PEO recently, discussing numbers compiled by the Centre for Management Buy-out Research at Nottingham University Business School (BPE is a founding sponsor of the Centre along with professional services firm Deloitte). It is one of the more pessimistic research notes to originate from within the industry in recent years – at least if you happen to be a large buyout specialist (which BPE, a successful pan-European mid-market house, is not).