Erin Griffith

This morning Donald Marron, chairman and CEO of Lightyear Capital, went on CNBC to discuss private equity investments in financial services. View the clip below. Marron says he's met with the managements of 120 banks in the last year and plans to continue to seek bank buyouts. The new FDIC rules are acceptable, reflect the concerns of the FDIC, and can work, he said. Marron and Lightyear Capital, alongside Fortress Investment Group and Crestview Partners, announced in May it would buy First Southern Bankcorp for $450 million. The firms are still waiting to hear the outcome of the agreement, Marron said. Does Marron think that in general, financial services need more regulation? Yes. He says he wants more transparency and standardization of financial products so they aren't so complicated that no one can work them out. Meanwhile, the show's host declares, "Forget regulation, I don't believe in regulation!"

More Best Practices: PE Law Review on the new Limited Partners Association best practices. "What comes up for scrutiny and criticism are provisions relating to carried interests, claw back liabilities and management fees." (Private Equity Law Review) Reflecting on a "Surreal Period:" Musings on the past decade from David Rubenstein, Scott Sperling, and others. (Dealscape) Random: Apparently Nomura is using Facebook to find former Lehman workers in order to recruit them. (Global Security Mag) Punny: Hedge Funds' Low-Arb Diet Is at an End. Get it? Anyways, merger arb is a good place to play these days for lack of competition. (WSJ) Huntsman: From Stalked to Stalking Horse. In a year since the Apollo/Hexion debacle, Huntsman has transformed itself. (Deal Journal)

Mid-market lender Golub Capital has raised $58.3 million toward a new mezzanine fund, according to a regulatory filing. The first close on GC 2009 Mezzanine Partners, L.P. includes commitments from 75 investors. The fund has a $350 million target, a source said. The firm invests in senior debt, second lien debt, sub debt, equity co-investments, […]

First Reserve is a Greenwich, Conn.-based buyout shop sitting on nearly $9 billion to invest exclusively in the energy sector. Today the firm announced it would commit $500 million to back a management team in building a new energy exploration company called KrisEnergy Holdings, to be based in Singapore. It's the second time First Reserve pursued this management team. Last year the trio of Keith Cameron, Chris Gibson-Robinson and Richard Allen were preparing to sell Pearl Energy, the exploration and production company they formed in 2000. First Reserve was interested but shied away because valuations were too rich, according to Will Honeybourne, a managing director with First Reserve. But the firm left the door open for future collaboration with the trio, which eventually led to KrisEnergy. The $500 million in equity will go towards a roll-up strategy. KrisEnergy's managers have already been engaging potential exploration, development and production targets in the Southeast Asia region, Honeybourne said.

Here’s a look at the past two weeks of scoops, opinions and analysis from the peHUB blogging team. Read ‘em before they go behind our subscriber paywall… Buyouts: KPS Tops Off Fund III with $800 Million Lovell Minnick Already Beating Target on Third Fund Southlake Equity Back In The Fundraising Saddle LP Organization Lays Out Guidelines One Year Later: Where Are The PE Arms of Failed Banks? This Time Last Year We Were So Wrong Private Equity Doesn't Have A Sweet Tooth (Historically) Sexual Harassment Against PE Exec Still Active Midweek M&A Madness "Our Deal Pipeline is Rocking": Fifth Street Secures New Facility GE Capital Lays Off Five Investment Pros Weekly Downgrade Wrap-Up What's Up With American Capital's "Acceleration"? Pay-to-Play Investigation Hits CalPERS Grande Communications Buyout To Close Monday

Needs More Lehmans! Jim Rogers, Chairman of Rogers Holding, writes that "Letting Lehman fail was perhaps the only thing governments have done right during this whole drama." (FT) And the Rebuttal: Letting Lehman fail was a mistake. (The Big Picture) That's Ballsy: After Wells Fargo seized $12-million foreclosed-upon beach house formerly owned by victims of Madoff, a top bank executive from the firm was seen spending weekends and hosting parties there. Bold. (LA Times) Bad Stats: How the heck can we run a modern economy when college grads have falling real wages? The answer is, we can't. (Business Week) In The Running: Bloomberg to enter the print publishing world? The company is apparently bidding for BusinessWeek (WSJ)

Despite the higher risk involved with investments in private equity, insurance companies plan to maintain or increase their investment allocations to the asset class, according to a survey conducted by Preqin. The majority of respondents expected to maintain their allocation to the asset class during the next year, with just over a quarter intending to […]

As usual, we have a week's worth of ratings actions on the debt of LBO-backed companies from ratings agencies Standard & Poor's Ratings Services and Moody's Investor Services. As has been the trend toward the end of summer, the number of downgrades has significantly fallen off. I noted last week that even the number of private equity-backed companies on S&P's "Weakest Links" list seems to have dwindled. The list represents companies that are most likely to default, and part of the reason it's shrunk may be because many of the companies have already defaulted. Is this the bottom of the default cycle? Company: Network Communications Inc. Sponsor: Citigroup Private Equity Downgrade: S&P lowered the bank loan issue-level ratings on Network Communications to 'CCC+' from 'B-'. Highlights: "The recovery rating revision reflects a change to our estimated default EBITDA and emergence valuation under our simulated default scenario," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Jeanne Mathewson.

Not Everyone is Evil: We're not expecting any way-past-the-point of ironic Banker of the Year awards this year, but Breakingviews has a look at Some Good Names in a Year Gone Bad. (Breakingviews) Foolish? You be the Judge: The effects of the financial crisis promised to boost activity on the private equity secondary market in 2009. (Prequin) Listicles: 10 Bubbles in The Making. Here, I'll save you ten clicks. China, Gold, Green, Federal Reserve, Trash Stocks, Education, Subprime 2.0, Life Insurance Securitization, Commericial Real Estate and Emerging Markets. (Business Insider) Lehman Towers: The BBC's dramatization of the final days of Lehman Brothers is pretty painful. (FT Alphaville, Dealbook)

GE Capital has laid off five professionals as it continues to trim its capital markets lending group, a spokesperson confirmed. The spokesperson declined to name those affected, but peHUB has learned the cuts included the following professionals: Mary D’Souza, a managing director in GE Capital’s sales group, Jim Gruppo, a managing director in GE’s Franchise […]