A recent ILPA meeting focused on the secondary market and the allure of liquidity
Continental Europe is today's destination of choice for big buyout
The securitisation of UK motorway services group Welcome Break in its buyout from Granada by Investcorp in 1997 was hailed as another example of how this technique was empowering sponsors. Today's acrimonious war of nerves between the company's equity sponsor, bondholders and in particular a hedge fund suggests that not all securitisation works though. The Deal Mechanic investigates why
Electra Partners Europe has sold Premium Credit, a UK finance company, to MBNA Europe for £67m, achieving an IRR of 29 percent.
Sterling Capital Partners is backing the nationwide expansion of Florida Coastal School of Law, a for-profit law school.
Onex Partners, the $1bn-plus private equity fund controlled by Canadian conglomerate Onex Corporation, has completed its first investment, taking a 24 percent stake in US healthcare group Magellan in a $100m deal.
… 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
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
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.
As the funding package for Bain's Brenntag acquisition demonstrates, second lien loans may be the latest US debt instrument to finally become established in Europe. The Deal Mechanic looks at how it fits into the capital structure