November Issue

November issue

News highlights

Parques Reunidos: Spain’s maiden PtP

FSA toughens delisting rules

AFIC’s half-year figures show increased investment

IPO revival?

BPEP breaks free

Equitis: a taste for secondaries

GE Corporate Financial Services acquires NMB Heller

GorillaPark: fighting to stay afloat

SEP reinforces London presence

b-business partners quits Germany

EIF wins German mandate

Danish venture to attract attention

Technology gets confidence boost

Investor confidence up

Lawyers’ networking forum founded

Osborne Clarke closes Frankfurt office

Corporate venturing losing appeal

Management fees: a fair deal?

Another partnership for NVP

JGV scales back further

Funds

Italy’s first mega fund on target

Accession countries get mezz for energy

Blue Capital seeks cash for secondaries

Danish construction fund launches

ICG out for more cash

Permira closes mega fund

VC FoFs reaches second close

Final close for Euromezzanine 4

New Israeli fund

Industri Kapital 2003 gets off the ground

Danske wraps up PEP II

Exits

Norwegian government sells VC portfolio

Bridgepoint on a roll

Warburg Pincus sells Jordan

Axovan sold for €39m

IP2IPO plans own IPO

3i sells ECM and Redbridge

Ratos cuts losses on DataVis

3i sells stake in Zanini group

Deutsche Beteiligung divests Victorvox

Center Parcs eyeing exit opportunities

IPO on cards for ACG

People

Waterland appts

Henderson strengthens team

SJ Berwin expands

Bouissou joins Ventech

New chairman at WestLB

New faces at Sagitta

Merlin wins award

Beringea: VCT of the year

Bridges Community wins

Corbett Keeling appts

PwC appts

RBS hires Weaver

Cohen steps down

Features

Biotech: on the crest of a new wave?

There is a buzz about the European biotech market, albeit a relatively cautious one, which is not surprising given the difficult times from which the industry is hopeful that it is now beginning to emerge. All eyes are on the US market where registrations for IPO listings, which included a significant proportion of biotech companies among their ranks, jumped significantly in August and September. Past experience suggests that if the US IPO market opens to biotech, then within the year Europe will do the same. While Europe’s biotech and life science-focused venture capitalists are keeping watch on the bigger picture, day-to-day they are focused on picking the winners of tomorrow and keeping the already chosen afloat. Lisa Bushrod reports.

Insurance for private equity

Insurance offerings to the private equity community have stepped up a gear over the last two or three years. Alongside the long-used professional indemnity and directors & officers’ insurance offerings, warranty & indemnity insurance is now a staple and increasingly used offering. And joining those, not strictly insurance policies but certainly routes to identifying any risk gaps that could be plugged with an insurance product, are pre-acquisition due diligence work and ongoing risk assessment for investee companies in a portfolio. The pre and post deal risk assessment offerings may not be new but now that the insurance market is wide awake to the potential flow of business from the private equity market these offerings now come with new and shiny private equity packaging on them. Lisa Bushrod reports.

Buyouts: Secondary trading in leveraged loans is starting to reflect economic realities. Will primary pricing follow suit?

Pricing in Europe’s secondary leveraged loan market is finally starting to fluctuate in line with investor liquidity, credit risk and performance, as its institutional investor base grows and more banks adopt portfolio management strategies. In contrast pricing in the primary market remains illogically static. Joanna Hickey reports.

Legal & Regulatory Exchange: Jersey fund businesses set to benefit from reforms

Final details of long-awaited fund regulation reforms are expected shortly from the Jersey Financial Services Commission. Expectations are high as the changes should boost the jurisdiction’s competitiveness in the private equity fund administration market.

These stories and more can be accessed with a username and password to www.evcj.com or by subscribing to the magazine version of European Venture Capital (& Private Equity) Journal.