March 2004 Issue

Since November 2003, UK private equity firm Candover has exited investments in French rail track maker Pandrol, UK boilermaker Baxi Group and, most recently, Irish packaging group Clondalkin. It has also seen portfolio company Aspen Insurance Holdings achieve an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. In all, Candover has now completed seven full exits from its 1997 fund, which closed on £850 million in December 1997. We talked to the firm's managing director Colin Buffin to gauge his thoughts on the exit market, the return of IPOs, and the danger of over-enthusiasm

MANAGER PROFILE 2004-03-01 Staff Writer SNAPSHOT The Texas Pacific Group (TPG) is a leading international buyout firm. It finances turnarounds, management-led buyouts and recapitalisations. Industries of interest include communications equipment, telecommunications, in

… the tough get data. Private equity firms churn through massive amounts of proprietary and third-party performance data, and the demand for more statistics is increasing. While GPs and LPs can agree over the quality and accuracy of these numbers, their manipulation raises questions, writes Art Janik

When Bregal Investments, the investment arm of the Brenninkmeijer family holding company, gets comfortable with a general partner, the firm looks for an unusually close relationship. The firm's co-chairman, Yves de Balmann, says this allows his firm access to the best GPs while retaining an important degree of control. David Snow looked him up in New York

LP advisory boards have no status in limited partnership law. While limiting their powers, this does not mean they're irrelevant. Far from it, discovers Andy Thomson

The maturation of the private equity market is creating a new class of investors who are faced with a luxury of choices: in-house versus outsourced investment staff; separate accounts vs. funds of funds, set menus versus ‘Chinese menus.’ Be careful what you order. David Snow reports

The contract is stark. If you are a large private equity fund of funds, now is a good time to cash in on growing institutional appetite for your product. But if you are a smaller player, or a recent entrant to the market, persuading investors of your merits is probably harder than ever. Andy Thomson reports

Succession planning. Personnel retention. Consolidation. Sound familiar? All these issues are now affecting the maturing fund of funds industry, and they all are complicated by a single question: how do you value a fund of funds business? David Snow presses for answers

Personal networks, relationships and access to the right people at the right time are essential no matter where in the world private equity transactions are being pursued. But private equity investors and their financiers, familiar with the whole of Europe's commercial fabric, say there are few countries where being part of the country's inner circle is more important than Italy.It's not as if the country can't deliver exceptional deals when the ingredients are right: witness the ‡5.65 billion buyout in June last year of Seat Pagine Gialle ? Europe's biggest buyout ever and recently voted by our readers as the 2003 European Buyout of the Year. So how does private equity work in Italy? Philip Borel asks Gianfilippo Cuneo, someone who can talk about private equity Italian style with insider's knowledge, to share his views.

Joseph Haviv presents the case against holding on to 1998-vintage US buyout investments. Better to sell and redeploy, he says.

Chinese entrepreneur Hong Chen is in the market with a couple of local buyout funds

The game of managing director musical chairs continues in Asia

The recent sale of private equity-backed KorAm Bank to Citigroup was a milestone for the industry in Asia

The prospect of funding China's burgeoning SMEs has captured the imagination of Hong Kong-based private equity practitioners

Private equity pros back a new ‘microfinance’ fund that will seed impoverished entrepreneurs around the world

GTCR has a big hit and a near miss with the same CEO

An ex-Hicks Muse pro now heads New Jersey's foray into alternatives

Canadian-style income funds are providing exit opportunities for buyout firms on both sides of the border

The mighty KKR has hired an in-house investor-relations professional. This should make limited partners happy and independent placement agents nervous

PEOPLE 2004-03-01 Staff Writer LAZARDS BUILDS A BUYOUT BUSINESS After setting up of a global fund placement business last year, Lazards has announced plans to build a European buyout operation targeting companies with a value of up to £500 million (€736 million; $934 m

In February, ABP and PGGM beefed up their already massive private equity investment programme, allocating another ‡6bn for new investment

An offer for the UK retailer is finally on the table, eight months after New Look founder Singh first knocked on Apax' doors to discuss a deal

FIRST ROUND 2004-03-01 Staff Writer It could be a sign that the secondary market has finally reached a peak – in recent weeks, investors on both sides of the Atlantic have begun receiving unsolicited, brightly colored emails asking, in bold type: “Do You Have Any Positions You Want to Divest?” <

UK portfolio companies say their private equity owners are too hands-off. Are they right?

Editor's letter Staff 2004-03-01 Writer When we launched the magazine two years ago, it was with the intention of covering private equity primarily as an asset class. We knew therefore that we needed global coverage. In particular, this meant meaningful coverage of the US market, because what m