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• Private equity firms in China in the firing line - ratcheting up the criticism of performance ratchets 15 Apr 2009. Source: China First Capital. Peter Fuhrman. There is a small but growing backlash against the top tier private equity firms working in China. Evidently there have been some articles in the Chinese press voicing criticisms of their approach and methods, and comparing them unfavourably with Chinese domestic investment companies, writes China First Capital's chairman, Peter Fuhrman.

• Venture Capital Investor Profile: Jack Crawford Jr, General Partner, Velocity Venture Capital 08 Apr 2009. Jack Crawford Jr on taking advantage of seed and early stage venture capital investments in the current economic climate, on the lack of exit opportunities for portfolio companies last year, on investment opportunities in Sacramento, California and on the attraction to cleantech companies.

• Private equity struggled through 2008 - what is the outlook for the coming months? 17 Mar 2009. Source: AltAssets. With the banking industry in dire straits and the global economy grinding to a halt, 2008 offered up a financial crisis on an epic scale. Banks stopped lending to others and themselves and scrambled to work out how much exposure they had to so-called toxic assets. Indeed, a dour picture is being painted for the months ahead when it comes to the macroeconomic outlook. But where does private equity fit into this picture and what effect has this economic meltdown had on the industry?

• Elizabeth Ward on the Brussels Taskforce's recent submission to the European Commission regarding European private equity regulation 05 Mar 2009. Source: AltAssets. At the end of February, the European private equity industry, via the Brussels Taskforce, proposed a unified set of professional standards for private equity to the European Commission. The Taskforce was established to address urgent and serious questions being asked of the industry by Europe's policymakers and acts on behalf of Europe's national private equity and venture capital associations, the EVCA and the private equity and venture capital industry. Elizabeth Ward is a counsel for Linklaters, an international law firm, and was heavily involved in the Brussels Taskforce Working Group which assisted with the proposal. She spoke with AltAssets about the Taskforce's submission.

• Investor Profile: Dr Helmut Vorndran, founding partner and CEO, Ventizz Capital Partners 17 Feb 2009. Source: AltAssets. Helmut Vorndran on the success of Ventizz's exit from ersol Solar Energy, on being reluctant to make investments in the current economic climate, on the current hardships facing the solar industry and on the attraction of making growth capital private equity investments in renewables.

• Buyout Track 100, Sunday Times report 09 Feb 2009. Source: Sunday Times, Fast Track, Deloitte, Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets. Catherine Wheatley. The billion-dollar deals and headline-grabbing acquisitions of household brands have become a distant memory since the credit crisis and the collapse of the banks halted private equity's buy-out spree. Leveraged deals have all but dried up since the heady days of 2007 when the industry snapped up British institutions such as the music giant EMI and the highstreet chemist Boots, reports Catherine Wheatley for The Sunday Times.

• Karsten Langer of Riverside on the effects of the credit crunch 08 Dec 2008. Source: AltAssets. Karsten Langer, head of origination at Riverside Europe, has spoken with AltAssets about challenges and opportunities in the mid market. Riverside has managed to keep deal flow up, but the firm is taking a slightly different approach to deal-making now.

• The UK’s pre-budget report 24 Nov 2008. Source: SJ Berwin. Pat Dugdale, Partner. Against a backdrop of ongoing global economic uncertainty and with the UK economy on the brink of recession, the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, this week delivered his second pre-Budget Report. As had been expected and was widely reported in the press over the weekend, the report focused on introducing initiatives which are intended to provide a fiscal stimulus to the economy in an attempt to reduce the severity and the length of any recession, writes Pat Dugdale of SJ Berwin.

• The financial crisis and the collapse of ethical behavior 12 Nov 2008. Source: Greycourt. Gregory Curtis. Most assessments of the financial crisis that began in August of 2007 identify as the source of the problem such issues as poor risk controls, too much leverage, and an almost willful blindness to the bubble-like conditions in the housing market. Well, maybe. These issues were certainly the proximate causes of the crisis we find ourselves in, and if only one or two firms had drunk the Kool-Aid - a Drexel Burnham, let's say, or a Long Term Capital Management - we could buy the usual nostrums as the full story, says Gregory Curtis at Greycourt.

• Round up the usual suspects 04 Nov 2008. Source: Weil, Gotshal & Manges. Christopher Machera, Joshua Peck. We may only be in the early stages of the current distressed cycle, but a significant number of portfolio companies of private equity sponsors have already found their way into bankruptcy. One of the unfortunate consequences of bankruptcy is frequently the search by the debtor and its creditors for potential claims against the usual suspects, including the private equity sponsors who effected the LBO and owned the portfolio company, according to Christopher Machera and Joshua Peck of Weil, Gotshal & Manges.

• Active CEE LPs regard region as increasingly attractive 29 Oct 2008. Source: AltAssets. CEE is becoming much more mainstream and limited partners who have been investing in the region for years regard it as more attractive now than ever.

• European Parliament votes on private equity and hedge funds 01 Oct 2008. Source: SJ Berwin. Simon Witney. Given the paradigm-shifting events in the world's financial markets in recent weeks - and the regulatory frameworks which they must call into question - one could be forgiven for assuming that Europe's legislators had more pressing matters to concern them than private equity. Not so for the European Parliament: last week it approved two reports which call for a series of 'legislative responses' to hedge funds and private equity. And while strenuous lobbying and political pressure has led to some of the more intemperate demands being removed from the final versions of the reports, and some welcome recognition of private equity's virtues included, anachronistic and misleading descriptions of the industry's activities remain, says Simon Witney of SJ Berwin.

• German takeover rules and stakebuilding practice 24 Sep 2008. Source: SJ Berwin. Christian Cornett. Many European private equity houses and hedge funds have been eyeing Germany's public markets for deal opportunities - either with a view to acquiring a strategic stake, to identify take-private candidates, or to benefit from ongoing developments in the market, says SJ Berwin partner Christian Cornett.

• Equity investor: don't jump in the directorship pool unless you know where the rocks are 17 Sep 2008. Source: Global Compliance Services, Holland & Knight. Steven A Lauer, Christopher A Myers. When taking a significant equity position in a business organisation, many investors seek a board seat in order to protect that investment. They often make such investments in firms that have not issued publicly traded securities. Such a role makes a great deal of sense from the investor's perspective, but does it carry with it unexpected potential risk and responsibility, ask Steven A Lauer and Christopher A Myers of Global Compliance Services and Holland & Knight. If so, what does that risk represent? Can such an investor take steps to ameliorate that potential risk? If so, what steps should he or she take when assuming such a role?

• Institutional Investor Profile: Kine Burøy Ianssen, Partner, Cubera Private Equity 12 Sep 2008. Source: AltAssets. Kine Burøy Ianssen on the opportunities in the Nordic secondary market, the large number of Nordic funds terminating by 2010 and the challenges in the alignment of interests between LPs and GPs in Nordic private equity firms.

• Central and Eastern Europe Statistics 2007 - an EVCA special paper 10 Sep 2008. Source: EVCA. This document provides an update of annual statistics for the CEE private equity and venture capital markets in 2007. Since 2003, this recurring publication has showcased the evolution taken by private equity in the region. The new report reveals: fundraising in the CEE area reached a new all-time record in 2007, with an increase of 89 per cent compared to 2006, while investments in the region increased by 80 per cent.

• Transparency and disclosure in Europe 20 Aug 2008. Source: SJ Berwin. Simon Witney. The European private equity industry took a further step towards openness and engagement at the end of June, when the Danish Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (DVCA) published its version of the UK's Walker Guidelines - just a few days after the Swedish association (SVCA) did the same.

• The digital divided 16 Jul 2008. Source: SJ Berwin. Charlotte McMillan. The right to use the radio spectrum is a highly prized asset. The economics are obvious: the supply of available frequencies is naturally limited, and, because the spectrum is needed to operate every type of wireless service - from satellites and radars to broadcasting and mobile communications, the demand is huge and growing fast. Even now, the European Commission reckons that the total value of electronic communications that depend on the use of radio spectrum in the European Union exceeds €250bn, or 2.2 per cent of annual European GDP. Getting a share of that market - at the right price - is an attractive prospect.

• Corporate governance and value creation 09 Jul 2008. Source: SJ Berwin. Simon Witney. To those who work in private equity, it is almost trite to say that the governance model - shorter communication lines, and more accountable management with aligned incentives - makes it easier to grow successful companies, drive out inefficiency and make necessary structural changes. But, as the recent public and political storm about private equity has demonstrated, the value generated by that model is not so obvious to those outside the industry, writes Simon Witney of SJ Berwin.

• What the future of private equity in Europe could be like: EVCA releases Global Scenarios for Private Equity and Venture Capital study 02 Jul 2008. Source: The European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (EVCA), Oxford Analytica. The future is about opportunities but also risks, threats and uncertainties. With its study Global Scenarios for Private Equity and Venture Capital, the European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association is trying to prepare the industry for unforeseen and unforeseeable changes. The study, which was conducted by Oxford Analytica, looks at four scenarios that might affect the world of private equity.

• Jonathan Russell's outlook for the year ahead - speech from EVCA Symposium, Madrid 20 Jun 2008. Source: The European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (EVCA). While private equity and venture capital have had a fantastic decade, Jonathan Russell, the newly elected chairman of the the European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association warns that now economic volatility is affecting us all and the private equity industry is attracting unprecedented attention from governments, unions and politicians across Europe.

• Debt buybacks 18 Jun 2008. Source: SJ Berwin. Robert Andrews, Brian Carne, Simon Fulbrook. There has been some debate in the leveraged loan market recently about whether borrowers (or the funds that have invested in them) can, legally, buy back debt. With large swathes of underwritten debt still on banks' books many months after the start of the credit crunch, there are clear opportunities for the private equity industry to buy third party debt at a discount. But there are also opportunities to increase their exposure to their own investments by buying senior and second lien acquisition debt in portfolio companies, according to Robert Andrews, Simon Fulbrook and Brian Carne of SJ Berwin.

• Legal services: a new destination for private equity capital? 11 Jun 2008. Source: AltAssets. Cleantech, China, infrastructure, Russia – private equity investors always look for new areas in which they can apply their proven growth models to generate returns. The next hot area – at least for UK-focused private equity investors - could be legal services, as the Legal Services Act 2007 is gradually coming into force in the UK. By allowing for alternative business structures to be implemented, it is bound to fundamentally reform the way legal firms operate.