Secondaries

The London-listed private equity investor has filled its top management positions from within as it separates the management teams of its two business divisions.

Five bright ideas for cutting down on technology spending at your firm.

New technologies have improved convenience and security in the secondaries market. In these deals, GPs do themselves and their LPs no favours by hiding important fund information.

As the spectre of LP defaults looms larger, Guy Hands'Terra Firma has attempted to get ahead of the issue by buying out LPs from its 2007 fund.

Even before the financial markets went off a cliff, we at PEI Manager found ourselves writing the word “granular” a lot. This usually came in the context of our reporting that LPs demand more granular detail from their GPs.

Swiss alternatives firm Capital Dynamics will augment its fund of funds platform by assuming management of HRJ’s $2bn in assets. The US fund of funds was reportedly burned by its over-commitment strategy last year, causing it to breach debt covenants and seek secondary sales.

Candover Investments has entered talks with interested parties on 'a range of options', including a possible takeover. The listed fund, which approached The Blackstone Group as it explores its options, has seen a 90% decline in its share price since its high last September.

Fresh from raising nearly €1bn for its eighth mid-cap fund, the French private equity firm is aligning itself to take advantage of market dislocation. It is also raising its third small-cap fund.

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.

CVC, Hellman & Friedman, Welsh Carson, Advent and Actis are among the industry veterans to have won awards in the highly regarded Private Equity International Awards 2008.