June 2004 Issue

The many portfolio companies to have received investments from Blackstone's private equity division generate aggregate annual revenues of roughly $55 billion; together, they employ more than 250,000 people. And yet, to date the New York firm has not significantly leveraged this considerable scale to its advantage. Enter James Quella. The former senior operating officer of DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, and before that, a consultant with Mercer Management Consulting, in March was hired by Blackstone to oversee the firm's sprawling portfolio of private companies. We spoke with Quella about his quest to create a new model for operations oversight

RIPPLEWOOD HOLDINGS 2004-06-02 Staff Writer SNAPSHOT: Ripplewood Holdings is a New-York based private equity firm that specialises in late ventures, growth capital, acquisitions, buyouts, management buy-ins, recapitalisations, turnarounds, and consolidations. Founded i

Following the recent announcement of plans to create a global private equity entity operating in North America, Europe and Asia, we profile the two new partners

The collapse of technology services and leasing giant Comdisco in 2001 is a tale of venture lending gone mad. Frivolous venture loans and equipment leases to earlystage companies, combined with a disastrous broadband investment, tipped the company over the edge when the dotcom phenomenon ended. Art Janik recounts how a once powerful venture lender burnt itself to the ground.

Venture debt enjoys little of the upside of venture capital, but most of its downside. No wonder this remains a niche play. But with the recent uptick in deal activity in the past twelve months, the handful of venture debt lenders are shifting gears as demand for their capital accelerates. Art Janik provides an overview of the current state of the venture debt market.

A new private equity fund, led by a retired Hicks Muse partner, will seek opportunities in the chronically inefficient healthcare royalties market. David Snow examines this alternative, alternative strategy, and checks in with the only other private equity firm to have executed it – New York's Paul Capital Partners

The deals that didn't make the list

Private Equity International presents the 30 transactions that most inspired admiration, imitation and schadenfreude in the course of this industry's brief history

Anne Glover has recently taken up a new role as chairman of the British Venture Capital Association. She talks to Colm Gilmore about her new position, Japanese river metaphors and the key role that the London Stock Exchange should have in the European private equity market

John Kerry proposes a government-backed venture program for the “old economy”

Following a knock-back by Sequoia Capital, the University of Michigan has placed its fund data under lock and key

Private equity firms are undergoing some radical mutations as they flee early stage ventures: but have they got the timing right?

How does the execution of a secondary private equity transaction actually work? Elizabeth Orzano and Bryon Sheets of Paul Capital Partners explain

When the going gets tough, discussions between senior debt and mezzanine providers in a capital structure can get heated. Does a new approach to inter-creditor agreements in Europe make sense asks Stephen Mostyn-Williams

Much is going right for buyout funds now. But when the going gets tough again – and it will – the best strategy is to stick with managers who know most about executing private equity's activist investment model. Citigroup's Michael Klein takes a view

SVT Group, the financial holding company, has come from nowhere to be a leading player in the consolidation of Chinese industry. Now it is turning its attention to private equity

Subordinated debt is a largely unheralded form of financing in Asia that is gradually coming to prominence

A star quarterback scores yet another victory in the private equity game

The sell-side pointman on a landmark secondary deal has set up shop as a buyer

JLL Partners sees two huge successes, and one carbohydrated disaster, in the course of a single month

The middle-market lending business abandoned by banks is being repopulated by a clutch of unconventional new players – witness the explosion of BDCs

Hellman & Friedman's Patrick Healy has moved from San Francisco to London to take on Europe's media industry. Local investors should brace themselves for a shrewd competitor

Mair takes reigns from Murray and seeks to get fundraising back on track

The UK private equity firm is posting cheques to investors in rapid succession

Can structural innovation help initial public offerings get away in the current market?

FLYING BY THE SEAT OF THEIR PANTS 2004-06-02 Staff Writer They say timing is everything in venture capital - get in when you've spotted an opportunity nobody else has, and then get the hell out before the competition arrives (or alternatively before people realise it's not such a great idea after all).

HEARST OF THE HAMPTONS 2004-06-02 Staff Writer New York private equity people love summering in the Hamptons, where they can relax and let down their guards a bit, far from the stress of Wall Street. But this summer they'd be well advised not to run afoul of the local newspaper tycoon, one John Kim .

NON-PROFIT GAINS 2004-06-02 Staff Writer If Henry Kravis appeared in your office to say you were in need of a financial restructuring, you'd likely be more than a little afraid. Unless, of course, you were a non-profit group in the Youth, I.N.C. network, an organisation that provides business acumen and oper

CARLYLE'S MOUTHPIECE 2004-06-02 Staff Writer Conspiracy theorists who see The Carlyle Group at the center of a vast corporate plot to take over the world must grapple with this unsettling detail – the private equity firm's chief spokesperson, Chris Ullman, has whistled for George W. Bush in the Oval Office.&

MOGUL MATCH 2004-06-02 Staff Writer The degrees of separation between famed money manager George Soros and Harvey Weinstein, the tough-as-nails movie mogul and founder of Miramax. The two are linked through the private equity industry, politics, love and Hollywood. ▪George Sor

LIQUIDITY EVENT 2004-06-02 Staff Writer Paul Coughlin, a managing director at Stamford, Connecticut's Longroad Asset Management, has a bit of experience with distressed situations, but nothing prepared him for swimming in the waters off Manhattan for eight hours. “The freaky thing is you can't see your hands

EVERYONE LIKES PENGUINS 2004-06-02 Staff Writer Branding is an increasingly important issue for private equity firms these days. Placement agents will even argue it is a critical factor in determining the likely success or otherwise of a fundraising. Therefore, it was not surprising th

Editor's letter Staff 2004-06-02 Writer Private equity and venture capital have come a long way in a short time. The former is a major force in international M&A; the latter plays a key role in global innovation: graphic evidence of how far both industries has come ever since VCs emerged in