October 2016 Issue

As OpCapita celebrates its 10th anniversary by holding a ‘one-and-done’ on its new fund at more than three times the size of the previous vehicle, founder and managing partner Henry Jackson explains why Comet failed and GAME succeeded.

Five top professionals in Asian private equity discuss why a new breed of LPs and record-breaking Chinese M&A are signs of a maturing industry.

NorthEdge might just have found the ultimate private equity portfolio company.

Secondaries isn't all about money, money, money.

A mooncake made of French pastry? Dough!

The US regulator has been hitting private equity firms with fines, and regulators across the world are also about to get tough.

The firm is reshuffling its senior ranks as it prepares to raise Asia’s largest private equity fund.

Against the backdrop of the Arab Spring and the oil price slump, Ambienta managed to pull off a successful exit from industrial cooling systems business SPIG.

In the world of private equity, Trump supporters are keeping their preferences to themselves for fear of upsetting investors.

State legislatures are piling into the fee disclosure debate – but are they doing more harm than good?

Listed private equity funds look like tempting targets for secondaries firms, but don’t expect a wave of consolidation.

The restructuring of First Reserve’s 2006 fund failed due to a ‘perfect storm’.

Winter is coming: Mid-market private equity firms must adapt to new ways of thinking or risk ending up on the wrong side of history.

The Solomons sold their pharma business for $28bn, made 10 investments through their family office and are now considering raising third-party capital.

Key themes from our in-house lawyer roundtable: BEPS, AIFMD and the next big controversy.

GPs are sitting on record amounts of cash awaiting investment but managers are eager to show they can maintain their discipline.

Two former partners at SL Capital Partners, Graeme Faulds and Graham Paterson, founded TopQ, a tech startup focused on the private equity sector in 2013.

New research shows private equity owners really do grow their portfolio companies faster than corporate owners, going some way toward safeguarding the industry’s licence to operate.

KKR and Permira are among those named in our annual celebration of the GPs that have done the most to transform a portfolio company.

An influential panel of industry experts from around the world assessed the relative merits of the submissions.

KPS Capital Partners’ work with Motor Coach Industries International is a great example of turning around a company by focusing on improving its operations rather than financial engineering.

By the time the Riverside Company exited in December 2015, water heater maker Eemax was No. 1 in all three of its market segments.

Serent Capital secured strong returns for its investors on its acquisition of mortgage technology firm Optimal Blue after following through on its promise to help the company through its next phase of growth.

When London-based Permira came across package distribution and sorting provider Intelligrated in 2012, it was quick to spot growth opportunities.

A 'shrink-to-grow' policy paid dividends for DRC Capital when it acquired PayDesign.

Adding operational value can be an acrimonious process, as NewQuest Capital Partners discovered.

Navis Capital Partners generated a 3.6x return when it sold one of Thailand’s largest chicken processors earlier this year.

Investment in new production capacity paid off when Mediterrania Capital Partners acquired a stake in Algerian nappy manufacturer CEPRO.

Chinese hotel operator Plateno Hotel Group was transformed under Actis’s ownership.

Palamon’s acquisition of Towry is a 'remarkable case of the power of operational excellence and active private equity ownership', one of the judges said.

It was the growth figures for Atos Medical under the ownership of EQT Partners that impressed the judges in the EMEA upper mid-market category.

A buy and build strategy can generate significant value. The relationship between the GP and management is central to its success.

Dutch firm Alliance Tire Group made big strides under KKR’s ownership.

Digital innovation offers a huge opportunity for value creation at portfolio company level. Ignoring it is an enormous risk.

Through buy and build, Cinven has created Synlab, a market leader in the European clinical laboratory industry.

Five things we learnt when the industry’s leading value creators gathered for Private Equity International’s Operating Partners Forum Europe.

Every portfolio company’s value creation story is different, but there are a few common operational levers private equity firms can pull to stimulate growth and boost returns.

The chief financial officer of a portfolio company has an increasingly crucial part to play in creating value to secure a successful sale.

The challenge of delivering strong returns is forcing operating partners to take a more hands-on approach towards portfolio companies, says Jim Strang, a managing director at Hamilton Lane.

Joe Haviv, chairman of Protostar Partners, explores the productivity issues in assembly operations.

If you can keep up with the pace of change, working in private equity-backed business can be a rewarding experience, says our anonymous financial controller.

Kick-starting revenue generating opportunities early in the investment cycle is critical to boosting shareholder returns, says Blue Ridge Partners' Jim Corey.

Having just completed its 100th mid-market exit, ECI Partners has finely honed its value-creation method, and is delivering the returns to prove it, say partner Lewis Bantin and investment director Joe Garrood.

A growth framework can keep a 100-day plan on track by providing valuable operational insights, says Jonathan Caforio, a principal at RSM.

As regulatory requirements increase, a big concern is ensuring that investment teams are not choked by administration, say Robert Brimeyer, the chief operating officer, and Alan Dundon, the chief marketing officer, of Alter Domus.