Christopher Witkowsky

Private equity firms spent 2009 strengthening portfolios and are now looking to invest large amounts of dry powder, a panel in New York told delegates.

The US pension is the latest to join the government’s programme meant to jumpstart the credit markets, which CalPERS has said it will not join.

The $126bn pension has created a new allocation to house its investments in the US Public Private Investment Programme.

Catherine Lewis La Torre, co-founder of fund of funds Proventure, will help Fondinvest to invest two recently closed funds.

The hybrid fund manager is one of several firms, including Bain affiliate Sankaty Advisors, trying to take advantage of the dearth of lenders for bankruptcy loans.

The BDC, which has been in default on $2.4bn in debt for months, has a preliminary deal with lenders to push back maturities on its debt to 2013.

Publicly traded ‘business development company’ Allied will be merged with rival Ares. Allied recently reached a restructuring agreement with lenders.

The maker of residential and commercial building products will reduce its debt load by $1.3bn.

Freedom Group was formed by Cerberus as a firearms platform after the firm acquired gun maker Bushmaster in 2006.

The turnaround specialist gave bankrupt calendar maker Lang Holdings a bankruptcy loan for up to $16m, which it later used as part of its bankruptcy bid.