November 2004 Issue

London-based private equity secondaries investor Greenpark Capital has just closed its oversubscribed second vehicle on €350 million, three months after its launch. Chief executive Marleen Groen, who co-founded the business in 2000 when she led a team that span out from Coller Capital, tells us about the new fund, the state of the market and what it takes for intermediaries to get out of bed.

The recent enquiry into the insurance industry carried out by New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer and the subsequent lawsuit filed against Marsh & McLellan, the world's largest insurance broker, may impact on the way private equity firms shop for their coverage

Market economies don't come much more turbulent than Russia's. To a growing number of private equity practitioners though, therein lies part of its attractiveness. In the wake of a major terrorist attack and a constriction of government controls, general partners active in the country tell Art Janik that Russian risk remains worth taking

Portuguese assets were in demand with private investors in the 1990s but recent years have seen opportunities dwindle. Is Portuguese private equity now on the verge of revival? Andy Thomson asked those in the know

The Spanish private equity market is growing in size and stature as investors join the scramble for management buyouts. Inevitably this raises concerns of an over-supply of capital, which could be exacerbated if domestic institutions begin taking the asset class seriously. Andy Thomson returns from Madrid

In a recent survey, European private equity fund managers named limited partners as the constituency most likely to take legal action against them. But given the paucity of such cases so far, are Europe's GPs over-reacting to events in the US, asks Andy Thomson

In October, we journeyed to the Mecca of venture capital – Silicon Valley – to hear the views of five investment experts on the state of the post-bubble industry. We discovered that in the midst of reduced fundraisings and startup investments, venture capitalists now focus on bottom lines first and bright ideas second. Art Janik chronicled the tech talk

The new head of CalPERS' $20 billion private equity programme plans to expand from the powerful platform he built alongside his former boss, Rick Hayes. David Snow visited Leon Shahinian at 400 P Street to learn more about the tastes, ambitions and challenges of this Sacramento native

Video Networks is looking for a load of venture capital

Cambridge VCs are writing bigger cheques than anyone in Europe

A US entrepreneur backs start-ups to create customers for his own company

Cash flow analysis can indicate the performance of a private equity fund well before it is liquidated. André Frei and Michael Studer of Partners Group explain why the payback period is an important performance indicator in private equity and how it should be applied

Can VCs make a buck while saving the world?

Actis is one of a number of investors spying opportunity in the fast-growing Malaysian private equity market

Singapore's government-owned private equity powerhouse is busily honing a new pan-Asian strategy

As Switzerland's Partners Group sets up in Singapore, the spotlight falls on how far Asian private equity has come and whether it can meet expectations

You've no doubt heard of Tom and Alec Gores, perhaps the most potent fraternal force in US private equity. Now third brother Sam is making a big play in the talent management business

Colorado's former alternatives head joins private equity firm Siguler Guff to focus on smaller buyout funds

Welsh Carson and Thoma Cressey begin a second round trip with a hospital operator

The secondary-hating buyout firm allows a transfer of its fund interests to CSFB

Forstmann Little is one of the only private equity firms to call it quits, which begs the question: when is this supposed “industry shakeout” going to start?

Ned Gilhuly's return to KKR's Menlo Park office is primarily a choice about lifestyle

Private equity firms are making inroads into Germany's corporate debt markets

At the recent EVCA technology conference in Barcelona, LPs delivered some fighting talk

Europe's new mezzanine heavyweight Park Square Capital owes its existence to the creative vision of its founding investors

If John Kerry wins the White House, the US will gain a new economic czar, but Evercore Partners may lose its founder. Roger Altman is being spoken of as the likely head of the Treasury department should Kerry win this month's presidential election. Altman is currently an advisor to Kerry and has been unable to […]

As if they're not already flying high, California venture capitalists are allying themselves with Superman. In fact, Silicon Valley VCs have turned out to be some of the most ardent supporters of California's Proposition 71, an effort to provide approximately $300 million over the next 10 years for stem cell research. The cause was championed […]

It just doesn't stop. The romantic image of The Carlyle Group as secretive cabal is too much for filmmakers and novelists to resist. The latest Carlyle look-alike to pop up in fiction appears in a new book from humourist Christopher Buckley, who has just released a satire of Middle-East politics called Florence of Arabia. The […]

Readers may find it alarming to learn that, in September 2004, a group of UK venture capitalists were involved in a confrontation with Italy's armed forces. No, this wasn't a London-based LBO group revealing an audacious bid to acquire a unit of the Italian Ministry of Defence as a precursor to controversial cost-cutting measures. The […]

Private equity and The Lord of the Rings may seem worlds apart to most of us. Still, many a general partner will tell you that a journey along the fundraising trail can be every bit as tough as travelling from The Shire to Mordor and back again. And there are other ways in which these […]

If you go down in the woods today… you might see members of the Kleinwort Capital team up to their bellies in mud and shooting at their advisors. Balls of paint we hasten to add. Lots of balls of paint in fact. At the UK private equity firm's third annual paintball outing in October, a […]

Upon first encountering the phrase, “Bono is a Managing Director and Co-Founder of Elevation Partners”, one can be forgiven for feeling a titillation not normally associated with the reading of a private placement memorandum. And yet, there he is in Elevation Partners' PPM, listed alongside fellow managing directors and cofounders Fred Anderson (ex-Apple Computer), Marc […]

Within the institutional investor community, private equity is constantly having to justify its existence. As a relative newcomer to most portfolios, its proponents must prove that it deserves a spot alongside fixed income and public equity. Private equity is of course not without its charms, but it is particularly ill-equipped to argue its case against […]