David Toll

It's hard to beat today's frothy fundraising market for jumping ship to raise a debut fund. But Stephen Schwarzman, chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Blackstone Group, this weekend cautioned young professionals to think twice before taking the plunge.

Institutional investors say they’re concerned that sponsors are applying too much leverage to companies, and many also believe exit conditions will deteriorate in the next two years.

W Capital Partners, one of some 45 private equity firms to host a table at ACG New York’s packed wine-tasting event Monday evening in New York City, raised the bar on promotional acuity in its selection of bottles to serve. The wines echo the kind of investing it does.

Wondering why you're paying so much to have routine legal documents prepared? The question lies at the heart of the business model of a start-up company called InCloudCounsel, sister magazine Buyouts reports.

Kenneth J. Kencel has resigned as president of Carlyle GMS Finance, a mid-market lending business of The Carlyle Group that recently passed the $1 billion mark raised on its debut fundraise but that has also seen several recent executive departures, sister magazine Buyouts reported.

A little-noted aspect of the first set of examinations of private equity shops by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is that the agency in some cases picked firms considered to be more likely to have compliance problems, sister magazine Buyouts reported. That fact may help explain the high percentage of problems found.

After a two-year hiatus, Randy Schwimmer is back with his weekly e-newsletter covering the middle-market leveraged lending scene. The Lead Left, which debuted last week, is the successor to On the Left, the popular e-newsletter that Schwimmer wrote while he was a senior managing director and head of capital markets at Churchill Financial.

David C. Turner, who is stepping down as managing director and head of private equity at Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, talks to sister magazine Reuters Buyouts about private equity, venture capital and the risks of market peaks.

Peter J. Nolan has decided to become a senior adviser at Leonard Green & Partners, stepping back from his managing partner role to spend more time doing charitable work and managing his family office.

The New York State Teachers’ Retirement System will tell you that its private equity portfolio has generated a net IRR of 11.1 percent through the end of June 2013. But don’t ask for the details. The pension fund believes that the returns of individual funds are trade secrets, according to sister publication Buyouts.