September 2006 Issue

White Oak Group, an Atlanta-based private equity firm focused on military technology, recently generated quite a buzz. Founded in 2004 by Mark Mykityshyn, a former naval aviator, and Christopher Melton, a former IBM executive, the firm turned heads in July with its partial exit from DataPath, a satellite communications company for the US Department of Defense. The investment yielded a stunning 23.5x return multiple, in no small part due to a series of lucrative contracts with the Army obtained through White Oak's military connections. PEI quizzed Melton about investing on the military frontline.

Nicholas Lockley, editor of PrivateEquityOnline.com, looks through our online window on the industry.

Returns are strong, financing options are growing and the first mega-deals are in the bag. But as the sun continues to shine on Australia's private equity market, some practitioners are betraying twinges of doubt about the future. Andy Thomson reports.

While the buyout market is going from strength to strength, venture capital in the Benelux region – like the rest of Europe – has still not recovered from the tech crash.

Private investment fund managers are flocking to the movie industry because they see it as – get this – a business with manageable risk. Are these GPs wise to the future of filmed entertainment, or have they simply “gone Hollywood”? David Snow reports.

Hindrance to some, help to others: when partnership interests change hands, general partners get involved. By Philip Borel.

David Wilton of the IFC has a message for secondaries funds awaiting divestments by development organisations: don't hold your breaths. Andy Thomson reports.

It's not just primary investors salivating over the potential of emerging private equity markets. Andy Thomson finds that secondaries funds, too, are busy finding ways of obtaining first-mover advantage.

Michael Smith, chairman of CVC Capital Partners, likes to keep his cards close to his chest and has so far minimised contact with the media. In August, he met for a rare interview with Philip Borel to discuss the prospect of a downturn, staff compensation, public relations and the rise of listed private equity.

In the first of a series looking at prospects for European venture hotbeds, Robert Venes casts an eye over Sophia Antipolis in France.

As venture dollars pour into US alternative energy companies, some observers are starting to question whether there is too much money flowing toward too few sustainable ideas. Dave Keating reports.

New entrants are massing to the MENA region, but there are doubts that they can all successfully raise capital.

It's a case of “so near yet so far” as Goldman Sachs' private equity arm pursues a seminal deal in China.

The acquisition of two divisions from Brambles, Australia's largest-ever buyout, is fast becoming its most controversial.

When Providence and Doughty bought the Caudwell Group in July, founder John Caudwell scored big-time. He always knew he would.

The KKR PEI co-chairman stays on message during a debut unit-holder teleconference.

Neither the telecoms sector nor European venture capital have had things easy in recent years – but the two have come together to produce a winning deal.

Improving the health of for-profit hospital HCA will be an exercise in tumor removal.

Having agreed a $375 million deal with Anglo-US investment manager AMVESCAP, turnaround specialist WL Ross is now a captive fund.

Bank of Ireland taps Paul Capital to grow a fund of funds platform.

European private equity investors are raising their game in infrastructure deals.

Interest rates might cool the fevered debt market, but the IRS could freeze it.

BARBARIANS AT THE? 2006-09-02 Staff Writer Ever since the book Barbarians at the Gates came out in 1989, journalists have made egregious use of its title in any article touching on private equity, mergers and acquisitions, or Wall Street in general. But with the explosion of mega

Editor's letter Staff 2006-09-02 Writer Given the large amounts of capital that have flooded into secondaries funds in recent years, it seems something of an anachronism these days to label private equity an illiquid asset class. Indeed, from the point of view of dedicated secondary buyers in d