Firms and Funds

You may remember American Capital’s ugly quarterly earnings report earlier this month, in which the firm reported a $548 million loss, purchased its European Capital arm and suspended its quarterly dividend. You may also remember my skepticism toward the firm's stated goal of successfully selling 14 portfolio companies. It’s only been two weeks since then, and ACAS understandably hasen’t announced any sales, but today the firm did release details on six company exits and some senior loan syndications from the prior quarter. Pulling off an exit in Q4 of this year is going to be nearly impossible, but that was said of Q3, too, and American Capital managed to swing six deals. The news hasn’t completely renewed my faith that the firm’ll close many exits in the coming month, but it is

MUMBAI (Reuters) – The best opportunities for JPMorgan (JPM.N) in India are private equity deals, inbound acquisitions and, in future years, capital raisings for domestic banks, its India investment banking head said on Monday. With more companies seeking capital, private equity firms from the United States and Europe have the money to spend to inject […]

Crown Capital Partners has raised C$250 million for a new fund that will make private equity and debt investments in mid-market Canadian companies.

Last week we wrote that brand-name private equity firms had begun internal layoff discussions. Now it seems that some of those talks have evolved into action. Financial News is reporting that The Carlyle Group has decided to close its Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) operations, which means pink slips for ten staffers in a Warsaw office opened just last year. It also has killed off an Asia leveraged finance team formed just a few months earlier, which means seven more layoffs. Carlyle spokesman Chris Ullman this morning confirmed the cuts, which include CEE managing directors Ryszard Wojtkowski and Janusz Guy, and Asia leveraged finance chief Eric Mason. He emphasized, however, that the moves are

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Property investors are pencilling “second-half, 2009” in their diaries as the likely time to start pouring money into China again as they search for bargains in its ailing real estate market.   But they are wary of slowing economic growth, overbuilding in some areas, difficult partnerships with developers and red tape. […]

SEOUL (Reuters) – A South Korean court on Monday rejected claims that the 2003 sale of Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) to U.S. investment firm Lone Star was illegal, a verdict that may clear a key hurdle to putting control of the bank back up for sale. The ruling, which prosecutors will appeal, may end a […]

(Reuters) – Blackstone Group LP (BX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has cut the size of its planned Asia-focused hedge fund because the global financial crisis has led to redemptions, the Wall Street Journal said citing people familiar with the situation. Blackstone, which manages private equity, real estate and hedge funds, would cut the fund […]

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Citigroup Inc is looking at putting risky assets in a government-supported “bad bank” — a step to reassure investors that the rest of its assets were safe, reports said on Sunday. The “bad bank” might take on some of Citigroup’s more than $1.23 trillion of off-balance sheet assets. Citigroup might bear […]

The market finished way up today, but Blackstone just keeps getting hammered. The stock traded as low as $4.21 per share, before closing at $4.65 per share. That’s an 8.82% loss today ($.0.45 per share), and an 85% decline since pricing its IPO at $31 per share. For the sake of extrapolation, let’s assume that […]

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Citigroup Inc shares tumbled for a fifth straight day, as Chief Executive Vikram Pandit tried to downplay speculation the banking giant might sell major businesses to restore its health and investor confidence. Pandit told employees on Friday that Citigroup, the second-largest U.S. bank by assets, does not want to change its […]