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.
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