PEI Staff

Americas 2003-10-01 Staff Writer <strong>America<br> <bold>Monitor</bold></strong><br> <sec level="2"><strong>Secrets worth keeping?</strong><br> <quotation><bold>Regardless of what will eventually be decided by a Californian superior

A Greek fund of funds advised by Westport has raised E105m through an oversubscribed issue of government-backed debt notes.

Boasting one of the largest institutional venture capital fund portfolios in Europe, the European Investment Fund is having to permanently balance commercial investment considerations with its political mandate. Not an easy task, finds Ricky Morton.

More than enough has been written about the broken promise that was Germany's private equity market. The problem is: who made that promise? Not the local practitioners who continue to build out the franchise of the asset class not so much in spite, but because, of the tough times the economy is experiencing. Philip Borel visited Germany to find out who's doing what and why.

The European high yield market has struggled to gain significant momentum in the past few years, with investors and issuers alike finding reasons not to embrace the product wholeheartedly. However, a new offering pioneered in July by UK DIY chain Focus Wickes, so-called mezzanine notes, seems to have addressed many of those reasons to say no. So what are these notes, and how do they work? Deal Mechanic investigates.

Americas 2003-09-01 Staff Writer <strong>Americas<br> Monitor</strong><br> <sec level="2"><strong>Collateral damage</strong><br> <quotation><bold>The ideological backlash to Enronitis is threatening to stifle America's entrepreneurial spirit, wit

Half-year results of the publicly quoted Standard Life European Private Equity Trust reveal an improvement of net asset value over the six months to 31 March.

Following the appointment of Charles Ayres in April, Lehman Brothers has hired Jon Macintosh to strengthen the investment bank's European mezzanine business.

The Swiss private equity group has sold a large enough part of its portfolio to CSFB Private Equity to enable it to repay a SFr325m loan to Swiss Life.

Drawing on advice from Capital Dynamics and Morgan Stanley, AIG has placed $250m in triple-A rated bonds backed by private equity fund investments as part of a $1bn securitisation.