Private Equity funds may have found a new use for the uninvested funds (known in industry jargon as "dry powder") they're currently sitting on, which are estimated to total from USD 500 billion to as much as a trillion.
"This is an absolute wonderful time" to be in the private equity business, Blackstone head Stephen Schwarzman has told Bloomberg. Blackstone is currently raking in fees "advising" insurance giant AIG on how to raise cash through selloffs in the wake of the gigantic 2008 bailout.
Blackstone and the other pe funds have been lobbying hard to shape the Obama administration's stimulus package, now headed for the Senate, to extract maximum benefit from possible tax relief provisions on cancelled debt.
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 " »
CalPERS, the California Public Employees' Retirement System, has taken its third direct ownership stake in a private equity firm by spending an estimated USD 275 million to acquire 10% of Silver Lake Group, a US-based fund specializing in technology buyouts.
Continue reading "Growing Pension Fund Stakes Feed PE Search for 'Permanent Money'" »
The gaming industry (casinos), a major employer in the IUF sectors generally thought of as relatively immune to cyclical developments, is showing signs of being hit by the credit crunch afflicting LBOs. Beginning with the 1998 Colony Capital buyout of Harvey's Casino Resorts, buyout funds have moved into the sector in a big way, attracted by the industry's tempting real estate portfolios and stable cash flows.
Continue reading "Casino Business Wobbles at High Stakes Debt Table " »