private equity Features Archive > 2005 Institutional Investor Profile: Dan Kjerulf, Partner, Danske Private Equity 20/12/2005. Dan Kjerulf on the fund picker strategy, Danske Private Equity's preference for country-specific funds and on why it is important for new investors in the asset class to get advice from people within the private equity industry before starting to set up a first investment portfolio. Energy surge 14/12/2005. Escalating global demand is switching private equity investors on to breakthrough energy technology, says Scottish Equity Partners. The growing energy-related technology sector of the venture capital market is one with considerable potential. The changing face of private equity 07/12/2005. In this article John Gilligan, corporate finance partner at PKF, takes a look at how the private equity industry in Britain has evolved. In the early days of private equity in Britain, he says, there were only a few equity providers, with relatively little money to invest. Many larger transactions were too big for any one investor, so consequently many were syndicated. The UK's pre-budget report 30/11/2005. The British Chancellor will deliver his pre-Budget report on 5 December, and the private equity industry is hoping for a seasonal boost from the door of Number 11 Downing Street, says SJ Berwin. Removal of tax anomalies is what is on the agenda of the UK private equity sector. Institutional Investor Profile: D Brooks Zug, Senior Managing Director, and George R Anson, Managing Director, HarbourVest Partners 23/11/2005. D Brooks Zug and George R Anson on long-term relationships with fund managers, brave steps, and why they think that fewer funds can be better than more. Making good law 16/11/2005. The private equity world has felt the impact of badly written - or just incomplete - legislation recently, and perhaps nowhere more than in the field of tax, points out Simon Witney of SJ Berwin. Harvest in China 09/11/2005. Exit records in Greater China continue to dominate the Asian private equity scene, finds APER. In this feature they examine the healthy state of the Chinese private equity market and hang some details on the current harvest. Hedge fund investment in private equity 02/11/2005. The number of hedge funds worldwide now exceeds 8,000, and these funds control nearly $1tn (about €826bn) in assets, says the Practical Law Company. Hedge funds have recently begun to be active players in the private equity market, as they have become capable of taking large equity positions, have assumed more shareholder-activist stances, and have invested in what are, for hedge funds, non-traditional assets. Institutional Investor Profile: Sven Berthold, Investment Manager, WEGAsupport GmbH 26/10/2005. Sven Berthold on WEGAsupport's investment strategy, increasing ticket sizes and on why the family office has allocated 20 per cent of its portfolio to investments in venture capital and private equity funds. To control or not to be controlled 19/10/2005. For Asian buy-out investors, taking 'control' has not only breathed life into ailing companies, but it has yielded tremendous returns. The divestment results in the first half of 2005 are a testimony of the bountiful private equity harvest - but there are hurdles, says APER. A VC approach to seed investing 05/10/2005. Zvi Schechter, co-founder and managing director of Giza Venture Capital, looks at seed investing from the venture capitalist's perspective. Success has many fathers he says, but failure is an orphan. Institutional Investor Profile: Henry Potter, Senior Banker, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development 28/09/2005. Henry Potter on Central Europe, the Balkan states and why the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has been very active in Russia recently. Potter joined the bank some ten years ago. He is now one of a team of three senior people who run EBRD's funds programme. Institutional Investor Profile: Dr Hellmut Kirchner, Co-Founder and Managing Director, VCM Capital Management 21/09/2005. Dr Hellmut Kirchner on due diligence, arrogant fund managers and on why VCM Capital Management started raising its second mezzanine fund of funds straight after closing the first. Institutional Investor Profile: Marc der Kinderen, Managing Partner, 747 Capital 14/09/2005. Marc der Kinderen believes that you can only select the best investment opportunities if you analyse all the funds active in your segment. 747 Capital meets with every small buy-out and growth team in the US that is in the market with a new fund. Institutional Investor Profile: Daniel Allen, Managing Director, Wilshire Private Markets Group 10/08/2005. Daniel Allen on why the Wilshire Private Markets Group (WPMG) has chosen a solely discretionary model, why the organisation focuses on small and mid-market buy-out funds and how the firm has developed its access to leading private equity firms. Wilshire has raised six co-mingled funds of funds to date along with a number of single investor funds. WPMG will raise its seventh fund of funds which will target a closing in the second half of 2005. Institutional Investor Profile: Richard Laing, Chief Executive, CDC Group 03/08/2005. Richard Laing on CDC's mission and on how to invest successfully in Asia and Africa. Laing has almost 25 years of experience in the emerging markets. He says that investing in the poorest countries of the world is not just good developmentally but also makes sense financially. Institutional Investor Profile: Kazushige Kobayashi, Executive Vice President, Alternative Investment Capital 26/07/2005. Kazushige Kobayashi on Limited Partner-General Partner relationships, his firm's private equity strategy and on what he thinks Asia needs to do to attract more investors into the market. Waiting for the winds 20/07/2005. Greater China could potentially be Asia's buy-out Mecca as each market complements the others in developing buy-out, says the Asia Private Equity Review. In the Greater China market, Hong Kong is the undisputed centre of buy-out funds management, outside of Japan. The territory is home to four globally-known buy-out houses: CVC Asia Pacific, Newbridge Capital, JP Morgan Partners Asia and The Carlyle Group. Their combined fund pool amounts to US$3.3bn. Although buy-outs expertise is clearly absent in both mainland China and Taiwan, there is, however, significant movement taking place in these two markets. Institutional Investor Profile: Stuart Imeson, Head of Pensions and Investments, West Yorkshire Pension Fund 13/07/2005. Stuart Imeson on why West Yorkshire Pension Fund invests the majority of the capital dedicated to private equity investments with big funds and the role his organisation plays in Yorkshire. He also explains his portfolio strategy. Applying Sarbanes-Oxley to venture capital 04/07/2005. Reporting venture capital performance to investors has always been a sensitive issue for venture capital funds, even in good times. But recent, challenging market conditions along with the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has made it an even more contentious issue. Without a doubt, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is the single most onerous legislation impacting governance, financial disclosure and the practice of public accounting since the US securities laws of the early 1930s. The lack of a universally accepted standard for financial reporting, as well as a lack of consensus on what would constitute a set of best practices, creates a potentially dangerous financial scenario for the entire venture capital industry. Institutional Investor Profile: Sheryl Schwartz, Managing Director of the Alternative Investment Group, TIAA-CREF 29/06/2005. Sheryl Schwartz on how to get into the best funds, on diversification, and on why excellent time management is the key to success in this business. In her 18 years with TIAA-CREF Schwartz has worked in five different areas: she started off in privately-placed debt and then went on to work in asset-backed securities before she started TIAA-CREF's secondary trading desk. Schwartz then worked in mortgage-backed securities. In 1997 she started the Alternative Investment Group. Institutional Investor Profile: Dr Hosein Khajeh-Hosseiny, Managing Director and Head of Global Private Equity Investments, Northgate Capital 15/06/2005. Dr Hosein Khajeh-Hosseiny speaks about his firm's strategy and describes his views on how fund of funds investment will evolve. Northgate Capital's goal is to provide institutional and family investors with identification of and global access to a select group of alternative investment opportunities. Northgate now has over $600m in assets under management and a strong, growing group of top institutional and family investors. The firm has offices in the United States and the United Kingdom. Institutional Investor Profile: Catherine Lewis, Founding Partner, Proventure 08/06/2005. Catherine Lewis on the stages of Proventure's investment selection process and her experience with GPs. Lewis co-founded Proventure in 1998 because she and her colleagues felt that there was a gap in the market to raise a fund of funds from institutional investors - mainly in Finland and Scandinavia - that would focus on investing in small and mid-sized funds. The founders developed a concept for a fund of funds that could deliver a unique service to investors and result in high returns. Proventure is located in Schaffhausen (Switzerland) and in Helsinki and has five partners: Lewis, Turo Levänen, Ulla Niemelä, Ari Jauho and Samuli Sipilä. Institutional Investor Profile: John Hess, Chief Executive Officer, Altius Associates 01/06/2005. John Hess on due diligence at private equity advisor Altius Associates, his firm's conservative investment approach and why he thinks few clients are better than many. Altius has a mixture of discretionary and non-discretionary clients, which include the California State Teachers' Retirement System, Teachers' Retirement System of Texas, Danish pension funds and UK institutions. How interim managers help GPs create value 16/05/2005. Growing competition and sophistication across the private equity industry means that there is an increased pressure on general partners to produce outstanding results and realise investments quickly. Firms are now becoming much more deeply involved with their investee companies both to ensure more effective day-to-day management and as a prelude to preparing them for exit. AltAssets spoke with Valeria Vescina from interim management provider AshtonPenney about how private equity firms use interim executives as part of their suite of tools to build stronger portfolio companies. Convergence in action 11/05/2005. Over the last few years hedge fund managers and private equity managers have been distinct categories of alternative asset investors, says David Goldstein of White & Case. All that they have had in common was that they represented private pools of capital. But that has been changing on many levels. Institutional Investor Profile: Barry Gonder, General Partner, Grove Street Advisors 03/05/2005. Barry Gonder on why all of Grove Street Advisors's portfolios are structured differently and on why he thinks that the risk associated with first-time funds is often overestimated. When Gonder joined Grove Street from the California Public Employees' Retirement System in 2001 he had already worked in investment for 12 years, having gained experience of both direct equity investments in companies and fund investments. At CalPERS he led the private equity programme from its infancy to $19bn in commitments - out of which $10bn had been invested - after five and a half years. Venturing beyond the margins 27/04/2005. We are witnessing the early stages of globalisation in venture capital, accompanied by the predictable increased protectionism within regions and multi-nationals, providing an interesting challenge throughout the stormy global economy. With the forecast ahead no less turbulent, says Mark Montgomery of Initium Venture Capital, it's essential for stakeholders to carefully consider what is changing within venturing and equally important, what is not. Institutional Investor Profile: Urs Wietlisbach, Co-Chairman, Partners Group 19/04/2005. Urs Wietlisbach on why he thinks that bottom-up due diligence is not enough and why cash-flow and investment forecasts are important. Wietlisbach gives his views on recent developments in the private equity market and insights into the firm's strategies. He co-founded Partners Group together with Marcel Erni and Alfred Gantner, two colleagues from Goldman Sachs & Co. Institutional Investor Profile: Lionel Bergeron, Investment Manager, Finama 08/04/2005. Finama Private Equity is the Paris-based private equity arm of French insurance company Groupama. Finama makes direct investments in French buy-outs as well as managing nearly €500m in fund of funds products, through its Quartilium brand name. Focus on private equity fundraising: past, present and future 06/04/2005. Depending on where you look, 2004 marked a big improvement in fundraising or yet another disappointment. Chris Davison, Associate Director at Almeida Capital, on how Almeida saw the events in the private equity market in 2004 and why 2005 will be a year of further improvement. Hungarian private equity market showed clear signs of maturity in 2004 29/03/2005. Without wanting to state the blindingly obvious, emerging markets are by definition emerging. They do not possess the characteristics of mature and established markets. But the term 'emerging' tends to distort the extent to which individual markets have reached different points on the path to adulthood. Hungary is a clear example of a market that has perhaps been done an injustice by still being termed an 'emerging' market. Institutional Investor Profile: Ivan Vercoutère, Roberto Paganoni, Maximilian Brönner, Tycho Sneyers; Partners; LGT Capital Partners 22/03/2005. Vercoutère, Paganoni, Brönner and Sneyers of LGT Capital Partners give insights into fund of funds investing, how to choose the best general partners and how they see the market developing. Institutional Investor Profile: Ralph Aerni, Head of Private Equity, SCM Strategic Capital Management AG 14/03/2005. Ralph Aerni describes in detail what SCM's due diligence process entails, why his firm considers first-time funds and why he thinks it is important to actively involve clients in the process of making investment decisions. Institutional Investor Profile: Philippe Poggioli, Partner, Access Capital Partners 09/03/2005. Philippe Poggioli explains how Access Capital Partners puts together its portfolios. He says that to him discipline is the most important quality of a general partner because they have to remain cool-headed and withhold from investments when the climate is not right. Institutional Investor Profile: Dr Petra Salesny, Partner, ALPHA Associates 28/02/2005. Dr Petra Salesny on the challenges and opportunities that ALPHA Associates have faced as an investor focussed on CEE. As a limited partner with seven years of CEE investment experience the firm has built long-standing relationships with fund managers in the region. Venture capital: The European way to success 23/02/2005. Attractive deals, high-growth portfolios and successful trade sales: the European VC industry clearly has the wind in its sails, say Wellington Partners. It is emerging from the recession even stronger, and is now specifically leveraging the strengths of its home market. How to Manage a Private Equity Sale Process: "The Market for Lemons" 16/02/2005. Twenty years ago a fresh faced economics undergraduate read a book called An Economic Theorist's Book of Tales by Professor George Akerlof. In it was a paper called The Market for Lemons that talked about the problems of selling things where the seller knows the quality of the thing, but the buyer doesn't. Akerlof concluded that the market might fail to work irrespective of the price in these circumstances. Akerlof won a Nobel Prize; the undergraduate was John Gilligan, now a corporate financier. Qualities of a good Limited Partner 07/02/2005. In her presentation Anne-Maree Byworth, Portfolio Director at CDC responsible for fund selection in South and South East Asia and the Pacific, asks and answers the question 'What makes a good limited partner?' Most people tend to learn their roles in the form of an apprenticeship, or where no mentor exists, by trial and error, she finds. How LP's Can Use "Moneyball" to Hit a Homerun with Emerging Managers 02/02/2005. Institutional investors such as Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Trust, WestAM Private Equity Group and the University of Texas Investment Management Co. recognize the need for a strong bullpen within their private equity portfolios and have allocated more than $6 billion for emerging managers, says Brett A. Nelson from Altitude Capital. The motivation was forced, in part, by the reduced allocations of many of the established "dream teams", resulting in smaller funds. For example, Spectrum Equity reduced their fund size from $2.5 billion to $1.5 billion. Taxing Stock Options 25/01/2005. The EVCA has issued an update of its comparative paper on the taxation of both European and US stock options. SJ Berwin notes the EVCA found that stock options are still taxed in most countries as income when they are exercised, rather than on the subsequent sale of the underlying shares - a situation which is not proving helpful. Israel's VC fund raising takes encouraging turn 17/01/2005. Israeli venture capital firms are in the midst of a new wave of capital raising. Zeev Holtzman, Chairman and CEO of Giza Venture Capital, assesses the current environment for fund raising and discusses those ingredients that can increase a fund’s chances for success. Global Innovation – The Case for International Venture Capital Firms 07/01/2005. The global economy has fuelled the growth of entrepreneurship and created investment opportunities almost anywhere in the world, says Dr Martin Haemmig. Entrepreneurs continue to develop innovations that create new markets and businesses. These companies increasingly need to be global in scale, in order to successfully capture market share and build out to a sustainable business that pays solid returns to investors. Employment related securities and the private equity market 01/01/2005. In May 2003, the UK government delivered a shock to the private equity industry by unveiling an entirely new system for taxing 'employment related securities', says SJ Berwin. This was itself a new term, encompassing any share or security, or interest in a share or security, obtained by reason of employment, with the exception of Inland Revenue approved share schemes.