Firms and Funds

This is what happens when LPs are cash-strapped: PE interests are piling up on the secondary market, there’s no debt to do deals and no companies want to sell. PE is out of vogue. Not unlike conspicuous-consumption-in-a-recession out of vogue. The fate of the fundraising processes that have sputtered to a standstill hangs in limbo--a little place LPs have been calling “fundraising purgatory.” This is especially true for many first-time funds, with no existing LPs to rely on to at least participate pro rata. Of course, the first-time funds are also the slowest to admit trouble, claiming they’re still working away, despite prolonged periods with no sign of a close. Others have come clean. In recent weeks, the following firms have put their fundraising on hiatus until the storm passes, according to reports at peHUB or elsewhere:

Tailwind Capital has closed its inaugural fund with $775 million in capital commitments, according to LBO Wire. The New York-based buyout firm spun off from Thomas Weisel Partners in 2006, and held a $320 million first close in early 2007. It had been targeting $750 million. Atlantic-Pacific Capital served as placement agent. www.tailwindcapital.com

  HONG KONG/LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) is selling about $2.4 billion worth of shares in Beijing-controlled Bank of China (3988.HK) on Tuesday, according to market sources and a term sheet for the deal seen by Reuters. The move represents a partial retreat to its home market by RBS, which had been […]

HONG KONG (Reuters) – GSO Capital Partners LP, Blackstone Group’s (BX.N) $25 billion credit hedge fund, is closing its Asia investment desk after failing to find attractive investments in the region, sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The four-member team, led by Asia-Pacific head Timothy Donahue, will be relocated to either London or […]

SHANGHAI/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Citigroup Inc (C.N) will close its private banking unit in China, which targeted the country’s growing ranks of millionaires, and fold the operations into its consumer banking arm as it streamlines its businesses, sources familiar with the situation said on Tuesday. Citigroup declined to comment on the restructuring plan but said […]

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Japanese brokerage Nomura Holdings Inc (8604.T) plans to shed another 80 jobs in the next few months in Asia, excluding Japan, sources familiar with the matter said. Nomura joins other major banks in slashing more jobs across Asia, a region hit hard by the financial crisis. In September, Nomura bought the […]

BEIJING (Reuters) – New Horizon Capital, a China-focused private equity firm, said it had raised 1 billion ($146 million) for its first yuan fund to invest in defensive firms in a challenging economic environment. “We’ve been looking at sectors and companies that will possibly overperform when the economic conditions turn better,” Cher-Teck Quek told Reuters. […]

Last Thursday, I suggested that 2009 might be a rebound year for publicly-traded private equity stocks. Not because of improvements in the underlying financials, but because such securities had experienced major gains during the year's first five trading days. Really the type of anecdotal daydreaming that would never have seen the light of day before the advent of blogs, and the public markets are already swatting it away. An updated look at public private equity shows that most issuers have flattened back out over the past two trading days. Blackstone Group stock, for example, rose from $7.14 on market open January 2, and got up to $8.10 on January 6. Now it's back down to $7.28. American Capital began the year at $3.68 per share, rocketed up to $7.31 and today finished back down at $5.81. Fortress Investment Group began at $1.27 per share, but has been stuck at around $2.25 for three days running.

Westview Capital Partners has held a first close on just over $248 million toward its second fund, a source familiar with the situation said. The firm will then hold a final close on $300 million in late Q1. The fund, Westview Capital Partners II LP, has a hard cap of $325 million. If this sounds familiar, it's because I just filed a fundraising story on West Hill Partners. The names are similar, but other than their shared location (Boston), West Hill Partners and Westview Capital Partners are unrelated. Westview came to market just as the fundraising market began to slide in September. Probitas Partners, which declined to comment, is acting as the group's placement agent.

West Hill Partners continues to work toward a first close on its debut fund, after more than a year of fundraising. Since November of 2007, the firm, formed by alums of PE firm J. W. Childs, has marketed its first effort. The firm hasn’t held a first close to date but expects one this quarter, a source said. Boston-based West Hill seeks to raise $500 million and has engaged Park Hill Group as its placement agent. The effort has experienced the challenges of a first-time fund in a difficult fundraising market but continues to push ahead with the effort, the source said. West Hill was created when Dana Schmaltz, former J.W. Childs President, left the firm in mid-2007.