October 2015 Issue

Welcome to our October issue.

Juan Delgado-Moreira has a clear sense of the winners and losers in today’s Asian private equity landscape. Off the back of another strong year in which Hamilton Lane allocated $11.8bn to the asset class, he tells Matthew Goodburn why Asia’s local players will have to accept the new realities or simply cease to exist.

Here at PEI Towers, press releases trumpeting successful company exits at healthy multiples are a regular occurrence.

Just looking at the pictures of our Lynn happy in her harness and poised to abseil down one of the tallest towers in the City, with the Gherkin and a steep drop to the pavement behind her, had First Round in a swirl of vertigo.

To heighten his appeal to “the little guy” by beefing up his anti-Wall Street cred, Bush has taken aim at the motors of the private equity industry.

Plans to give LPs a reporting template to track their fees are being welcomed by experts.

Headland Capital Partners has halted fundraising for its seventh fund and will now focus solely on working through its remaining unrealised assets.

One mid-market firm’s battle with a union shows how organised labour is getting more sophisticated in its approach to private equity.

ESMA gave the green light for Guernsey- and Jersey-based managers to market in Europe. Then everything turned to red.

Private equity firms are taking the temperature in Poland once again.

Cheap yieldco and direct investor money has compressed yields and again raised an age-old question: are private equity strategies really appropriate in the renewable infrastructure space?

Investors in emerging markets are enduring a bumpy ride, buffeted by China’s markets, Russia’s recession and weak currencies. The survivors now have the track record to differentiate themselves and attract investors, but at the cost of first-time funds.

Could a country mired in an economic crisis brought on by falling oil prices and a civil war be entering a ‘sweet spot’ for investors?

Record-breaking levels of investment and deal activity reveal how CEE countries are winning new fans, writes Robert Manz

The Asian market is as big as it is diverse, and Guy Hands, who has recently returned from his latest tour of the region, believes it will increasingly look to private equity  

The Asian oil and gas industry has largely been untapped by private equity, but Brad Roach and Karthik Ashwin Thiagarajan say that is beginning to change

Latin America can test the courage of most investors. However, those willing to play the long game believe they have reasons to be cheerful.

The Abraaj Group’s investment in the Peruvian women’s accessories retailer gave a boost to the region’s nascent private equity industry as local founders realised the value of intelligent third-party capital.

China’s volatile markets may dominate the headlines, but Matthew Goodburn meets some of Asia’s key players still finding opportunities in a region that is increasingly attractive.

The Dutch pension group says it won’t commit capital to funds that fail to disclose fees, and that it’s time GPs paid attention to transparency.

LACERS’ strategic decision to increase exposure to private equity is continuing.

Private equity returns in emerging markets outperformed benchmark gains, thanks partly to strong exit environments, record IPOs in Europe and record M&A activity in Asia.

Welcome to our fourth annual Operational Excellence Awards Special, and while we’re at it, our heartiest congratulations to all 12 winners revealed within it. This is the publication where we collect and celebrate the very best stories of private equity.

For GPs hoping to attract investors to their funds, value-creation capabilities are no longer optional. However, adding expertise is not the end of the story — GPs should be pushing value creation into new frontiers.

If you want to improve your portfolio companies you need to look at the numbers. But can the numbers be hiding more fundamental problems?

What are the difficulties in driving value-creation initiatives when you’re not the one behind the wheel?

The private equity industry needs to start justifying its existence, EQT managing partner Thomas von Koch warned delegates at PEI’s Operating Partners Forum Europe.

When it comes to operational expertise, investors can get comfortable with almost any model out there, as long as there’s transparency around remuneration — and proof that the method actually works.

Doughty Hanson’s investment in Hospitales Quirón won PEI’s inaugural Operational Excellence in Procurement Award, sponsored by procurement consultancy Efficio, at the Operating Partners Forum Europe in London in April.

So what’s it like to be owned by a private equity firm? Private Equity International asked one chief executive* for his impressions of the industry’s ability to create operational value

A snapshot of the operational improvement and value creation industry across Asia-Pacific from AlixPartners and PEI’s Research & Analytics team.