Just how anyone can question private equity's status as a force for economic good is beyond us. Not only do many successful general partners create jobs in their investment portfolio, but they also boost local businesses around them. Take Apax Partners for example: the London-based firm is preparing to move to a new nine-storey headquarters in the West End and has handed a company called SG InteriorExterior a contract to fit it out. By the time the job is done, “74,500 sq ft of prime office accommodation” will be awaiting the Apax team, complete with a landscaped terrace on the sixth floor affording panoramic views of the city skyline and a luxury gym in the basement. The project's expected cost? £7.3 million. How do we know? Well, SG InteriorExterior were so chuffed with the assignment, they sent us a press release.
QUOTABLE
Turnaround specialist Wilbur Ross telling the
The European Central Bank taking a more positive view on the private equity boom, in a report published in mid-April.
Overheard at New York restaurant, Gordon Ramsay at The London, regarding a table of Goldman Sachs employees, who spent upwards of $50,000 on wine. The restaurant is in a building owned by The Blackstone Group, which has paid roughly $212 million in banker fees so far this year, according to Dealogic. The comment was reported in a
Neil Rimer of Index Ventures' in this month's Privately Speaking. See p. 40.