unquote” British Private Equity Awards – winners announced November 6, 2009
Posted by nicolatillin in awards, UK & Ireland.Tags: awards, henry blofeld, lord's, unquote", winners
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6 November 2009
Last night unquote” celebrated the achievements of the UK venture capital and private equity industry at its fifth British Private Equity Awards.
The London event was held at Lord’s Cricket Ground and was hosted by Henry Blofeld who presented awards to the thirteen winners.
LAW FIRM – DEAL STRUCTURING – DLA Piper
LAW FIRM – FUND STRUCTURING – Clifford Chance
CORPORATE FINANCIER – Hawkpoint Partners
DUE DILIGENCE SPECIALIST – Ernst & Young
PLACEMENT AGENT – Campbell Lutyens
DEBT PROVIDER – Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets
ALTERNATIVE DEBT PROVIDER – ICG
FUNDRAISING – ECI Partners
VCT MANAGER – Albion Ventures
VENTURE CAPITAL HOUSE – Foresight Group
SMALL BUYOUT HOUSE – Dunedin Capital Partners
MID-MARKET BUYOUT HOUSE – ECI Partners
DEAL OF THE YEAR – Inflexion Private Equity, for Viking Moorings
Private equity remuneration a hot topic September 16, 2009
Posted by nicolatillin in Buyouts.Tags: Capital Creation 2009, private equity, regulation, renumeration, unquote"
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From the unquote” team at Capital Creation in Monte Carlo.
A central theme this morning at the Capital Creation event was remuneration: As bankers worldwide prepare for their compensation packages to shrink, many in the private equity industry are championing maintaining the high levels of salary and bonus paid to executives in the space. In some firms, where remuneration is below market rate, there are even calls to raise it so as to ensure the continuity of the teams.
“Poor performance absolutely affects team retention,” said Peter McKellar, CIO of SL Private Equity. “Why hang around if there is no carry? Those in their early 30s have to look after their own careers, which makes LPs worry who will be left to look after the investments.”
But Nordwind Capital’s CEO Hans Albrecht was very outspoken about the need to keep remuneration low initially, with bumper rewards only paid out after long-term time horizons.
“EUR 250,000-300,000 per head is sufficient to run a fund. They should make money at the end of the day, not now. LPs must not invest in funds where there is too little risk for the GPs.”
Albrecht added that he felt young professionals at firms should re-mortgage their homes to pay their portion of GP contributions if need be, as it demonstrates their true, long-term commitment to LPs.
Not all LPs are convinced by this, however. Rod Selkirk, now at Bridgepoint Development Capital but previously CEO of Hermes Private Equity, explained how this can actually be off-putting: “At Hermes, we once declined to invest in a fund where staff were expected to work six days a week and were only paid small bonuses, as the head believed in this long-term strategy. This should have been music to our ears as LPs, however we feared they would not be able to keep the team together. GP bosses must remember they are recruiting and retaining talent not just from within the private equity industry, but also the entire asset management area. If the economics seem better elsewhere, the talent will go there.”
Albrecht had the last word: “I hope the regulators don’t agree with that.”
unquote” Italia private equity congress August 26, 2009
Posted by nicolatillin in Networking Opportunities, Southern Europe.Tags: congress, networking, private equity, Southern Europe, unquote"
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Southern Europe unquote” are holding their 3rd annual private equity congress on 12th November 2009 at Le Méridien Gallia in Milan.
Speakers include:
Limited Partners and Fund of Funds are offered complimentary places.
Delegate rates can be found at http://www.italiapecongress.com/book-now.html
To sign up for a complimentary copy of Southern Europe unquote”, sign up at http://www.southerneuropeunquote.com/public/showPage.html?page=unquote_seurope_free_trial
PIK notes – useful or just trouble for the future May 16, 2009
Posted by nicolatillin in Buyouts.Tags: Kimberly Romaine, PIK notes, private equity, restructuring, unquote"
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PIK notes seem to be making something of a return to the private equity landscape but opinion is divided to whether they represent a disaster waiting to happen, or are a genuinely useful tool considering the current need to come up with workable restructuring solutions.
On the face of it, PIK notes seem to be an attractive option, allowing preservation of cashflow by offsetting interest repayments by issuing notes. However there is strong evidence to show that PIK notes issued in the past are coming back to bite people.
A recent article in unquote“, written by Editor-In-Chief, Kimberly Romaine, outlined the case study of Four Seasons, the UK care home group. Bought back in 06 by the Qatar Investment Authority for £1.4bn, it looked the perfect deal structure but if we looked at the same structure now, things would appear very differently – around £83m of PIK was placed between the mezz tranche and the sponsor – with the PIK at 20% interest.
With Four Seasons having a technical breach and the business currently valued at less than half of the original valuation, a debt for equity swap looks a likely outcome. The unquote” article indicates that the deadline for an agreement was due at the beginning of May, with creditors threatening to take over assets.
It would be interesting to hear what other people think about PIK – a useful instrument in exceptional circumstances or just a way of papering over cracks – cracks which will just become wider and deeper with time.
Q1 09 – UK deal drought continues April 5, 2009
Posted by nicolatillin in Buyouts, Private Equity Research & Statistics.Tags: confidence, Corbett Keeling, deal values, private equity, Private Equity Insight, uk buyouts, unquote"
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The quarterly confidence survey carried out by unquote” and sponsored by Corbett Keeling shows a stark picture in the UK large buyout sector (150m+ euros) – with no deals done at all.
Small buyouts didn’t fare much better, with only 9 deals in comparison with 37 in the same quarter in 08.
However, in comparison with last quarter, the confidence survey did indicate some hope:
- More people now believe that activity will increase for smaller deals
- More people now believe valuations now reflect the current economic outlook
- Most people believe that debt is available – but only for the right transactions
- No predictions for growth in the UK economy this year, but the vast majority are saying it will return before 2011
The areas of opportunties were identified as distressed corporates and private equity backed businesses which are coming under pressure.
Over 500 key players in the UK private equity/vc markets were surveyed by unquote”, so the findings are a good guideline of confidence in general.
Deal value/volume stats were provided by Private Equity Insight.
Southern Europe – still bucking the buyout trend? March 31, 2009
Posted by nicolatillin in Buyouts, Private Equity Research & Statistics.Tags: Buyouts, Italy, Private Equity Insight, Southern Europe, statistics, unquote"
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Figures from leading journal unquote” show the 2008 buyout market for Southern Europe, and Italy in particular, was a different story to the rest of the wider European region.
Figures from the unquote” database – Private Equity Insight - showed that deal activity and value increased in 2008.
However, year to date stats for 2009 so far shows that the region is experiencing the same slowdown as affected the rest of Europe in the last half of 08.
Interviewed in the April issue of unquote”, Eugenio Morpurgo, CEO of Italian corporate finance advisory firm Fineurop Soditic said “Activity will be scarce: 2009 looks like a year for re-capitalisations and rescue finance”.
Sample copies of unquote” are easily available – simply fill in a request form.
European buyout market – reviewing ’08 March 30, 2009
Posted by nicolatillin in Buyouts, Private Equity Research & Statistics.Tags: buyout, deal activity, european, private equity, unquote"
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Soon to come from the team at unquote” is the key review of 2008′s european buyout market. Despite showing the initial trends you would probably imagine – volumes down from 823 in ’07 to 580 in ’08, with values falling even further – 184.9 bn euros in ’07 to just 69.7 bn euros in @08 – there are some other interesting findings.
Although larger deals are down of course, there were still 11 seen in the 1bn euro plus range – could this be suggesting some resilience where top quality assets are concerned?
For more info on this year’s review, go to www.europeanbuyoutreview.com
In addition to overall headline numbers, it also looks at each of the European regions in more depth.
