The listed Permira investor, which is now 20%-owned by Coller Capital, saw two-thirds of the book value wiped off its portfolio during 2008. Chief executive Andrew Williams has stepped down.
The UK buyout house has booked a €1.3bn impairment – half the value of the equity investment – on the 2007 deal. It will also return €80m of carry to investors, because according to chief executive Guy Hands, 'our investors have suffered and therefore our rewards should suffer'.
Contestant: Tim Smith, CFO, Coversus Capital, Charlotte, North Carolina. How does an LP value its new stake in a fund to which it already has a commitment, and which was purchased on the secondary market? How does the secondary purchase impact the carrying value of the LP's original fund investment?
Andrew Thornborrow, General Counsel, BlueRun Ventures, Menlo Park, California
Arcapita has a unique approach to wooing Middle Eastern investors – Sharia compliance, global exposure and a deal-by-deal syndication model. What's more, this structure avoids the “brain damage” of fundraising
US firms that live in fear of registering as an investment advisor may find that it's not as painful as they thought – provided they are well prepared for random audits
Mary Schapiro, the new head of the SEC, wants to regulate hedge funds. Does this mean private equity, too?
The US Senate version of the stimulus bill includes a tax break for those who purchase discounted debt
There has been little progress toward making the International Financial Reporting Standards a good fit for private equity, and hence scant adoption by the industry in Europe
President Obama included language in his budget released yesterday that would tax carried interest as income at 39.6 percent. In other regulatory news, a bill in Congress would also require all advisors to private equity funds to register with the SEC.