May 2012 Issue

Multiple industry sources say Carlyle owners did nothing unusual in using the proceeds from a $500m loan primarily to pay themselves, but some have questioned Carlyle’s public description of the borrowings in 2010.

Some GPs are rolling the dice on job seekers not yet old enough to enter a bar for their ‘pre-MBA’ positions.

With regulators looking over their shoulders, some GPs are playing it safe by hiring third-party valuation advisors to check their numbers. However not all third-party opinions are equal, warns Cindy Ma, managing director at advisory-focused investment bank Houlihan Lokey.

A level of operational due diligence more common in the hedge fund space is now being applied to private equity managers.

The 10 commandments for successfully hiring portfolio company executives is unveiled by Morgan Samuels partner Struan Scott.

With team instability rife in Asia, limited partners are concentrating more than ever on ‘key-man’ provisions writes Vicky Meek.

Don’t be fooled: the private equity world is by no means exempt from the omnipresent issue of dishonesty. Robert Strang of Investigative Management Group provides some clear cut advice on identifying the bad apples.

Three successive periods of private equity ownership have transformed Pets at Home into a billion-pound retail behemoth.

Some important differences exist between IPEV guidelines and those released by ILPA, including the absence of a reporting template for fund managers to follow on capital call and distribution notices.

Issues around ‘third country’ rules and the role of depositories continues to haunt fund managers as the EU Commission marches to its own beat on follow-up rulemaking.

Emile Van der Burg has taken the chairman reins at IPEV as it continues its quest for global standardisation of valuation and reporting methods.

President Barack Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act into law Thursday, signifying huge changes to the way private equity and venture capital fundraising is regulated.

Firms have been filing registration documents since last year to meet the 30 March deadline. And for some firms, the documents include some ‘embarrassing’ disciplinary history.

As the private equity market braces itself for another rumoured SEC sweep, PE Manager offers a few suggestions to help survive the inspection process.