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Friday Letter: Don't ask questionsWhen you hear that new funds are in effect oversubscribed before they’ve even been officially launched, there can be only one conclusion. Private equity fundraising has hit warp speed.
- Friday Letter: Who cares about private equity?
Private equity was the ’hot topic’ at Davos, and it continues to preoccupy Wall Street and European bankers. However, people outside this rather small circle are having a hard time understanding what the growth of private equity should mean to them. This ambivalence could present a challenge to the continued success of the industry.
- Friday Letter: Caps off
In the era of the mega-mega fund, a new math has developed for determining an appropriate size for one’s next investment vehicle. It is a complex calculation that always ends up equaling the maximum that LPs are willing to commit.
- 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).
- Friday Letter: Don't cry for Apollo
To the extent that rounding up $1.5 billion can be called “disappointing”, Apollo Management now has tasted this more bitter fruit. The New York firm’s Guernsey partnership, AP Alternative Assets, has only been able to attract the number on the prospectus cover, according to sources close to the firm. Contrary to reports, the vehicle has not yet been listed on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange, and in fact this is part of the problem.
- Friday Letter The customer is always right
When Kohlberg Kravis Roberts blew the market away earlier this year with the first publicly quoted vehicle since the UK’s investment trusts of the 1980s and 1990s, many predicted a rash of similar offerings.
- Friday Letter: The feds made us do it
US Department of Justice, The Blackstone Group has a couple of choice words to send your way – “thank you”.
- Friday Letter: Fourth time lucky
So far Blackstone’s fundraising bar has been raised at least three times and yet, according to a number of investors canvassed by PEO it still seems likely that the firm will hit its latest reported target of $20 billion.
- Friday Letter: Middle Eastern promise
Private equity’s push into the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) continues unabated. Although funds raised in the region still outweigh funds invested, local and international interest in MENA private equity is intensifying.
- Friday Letter: Blackstone’s public peers
It seems almost quaint these days to hear GPs talk about which sectors they plan to target, given that the most lucrative business to own right now is an alternative investment platform.