The SEIU has released a new report on Sovereign Wealth Funds to highlight glaring gaps in the rules for assessing foreign investments in U.S. companies, which continue to depend principally on voluntary disclosure. As the report points out, these regulations were largely designed to address foreign entities taking a direct ownership interest in domestic assets, and therefore faile to address the indirect ownership structures that characterize private equity.

The report is available online at www.behindthebuyouts.org.

Posted on May 6, 2008 06:08 AM | Permalink

Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWF) – state-owned, state-run investment entities– have begun to generate controversy and debate as they have recently emerged as significant global financial players. SWFs have recently taken large stakes in public stock exchanges, major manufacturing, service and infrastructure transnationals, and thrown a lifeline to private equity funds searching for "permanent money". This introductory briefing was prepared for the IUF Executive Committee, which met in Geneva April 17-18, 2008.

Continue reading "Sovereign Wealth Funds and Private Equity " »

Posted on May 6, 2008 05:35 AM | Permalink

Despite the global credit crisis, private equity firms have raised record amounts of cash so far this year - and that cash will be seeking outlets.

Continue reading "Global Credit Crisis? Record 2008 Fund Raising for PE Firms" »

Posted on May 5, 2008 05:43 PM | Permalink

Desperate to move off the books over USD 43 billion in leveraged loans - loans it couldn't securitize and unload when the global credit crisis hit - Citigroup has found the ideal buyer: the private equity firms whose buyouts generated the loans.

Continue reading "Locusts into Vultures 2: Funds in $12.5 Billion Debt Buyback Deal " »

Posted on April 11, 2008 03:32 PM | Permalink

The IUF gave evidence of the destructive impact of private equity buyouts at a public hearing on hedge funds and private equity organized by the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs in Brussels on April 8. In addition to describing the impact on jobs and working conditions, the IUF emphasized the dangers of high levels of LBO debt in the context of the current global economic crisis.

Continue reading "IUF at the European Parliament Highlights Dangers, Risks of Private Equity Buyouts" »

Posted on April 10, 2008 09:28 AM | Permalink

Linguistic innovation has grown apace with financial creativity in recent years. "Covenant lite" has morphed into "zombie", the term for what a Financial Times article of March 25 described as "companies with unsustainable financial structures but no triggers for the banks to force them to renegotiate."

Continue reading "Night of the LBO Dead" »

Posted on April 1, 2008 03:44 PM | Permalink

In 2003, Debenhams, a department store chain with 142 units in the UK and Ireland, was taken private by three private equity funds: CVC, TPG and Merrill Lynch Private Equity.

Continue reading "The Debenhams Deal: Autopsy of a Quick Flip" »

Posted on April 1, 2008 01:17 PM | Permalink

Buyout funds continue to squeeze cash out of the companies they acquire in order to pay off debt and get their money out early.

Continue reading "Permira Overruns Union, Management Opposition to Squeeze 'Special Dividend' Out of Fashion Firm Hugo Boss " »

Posted on March 18, 2008 03:49 PM | Permalink

Unions representing workers at Japan's Sapporo Holdings (which includes Sapporo Breweries and Sapporo Beverages) have declared their opposition to the recent takeover bid by the hedge fund Steel Partners.

Continue reading "Japanese Union Opposition to Hedge Fund Takeover Bid for Sapporo Breweries" »

Posted on March 18, 2008 12:11 PM | Permalink

Following earlier advances into agricultural commodity/supply chains and food testing documented on this site, private equity is now staking a claim in the agrochemicals sector.

Continue reading "Permira's Arysta Buyout Takes PE into Agrochemicals" »

Posted on March 11, 2008 11:26 AM | Permalink