Firms and Funds

(Reuters) – Emerging market private equity hit a capital raising record in 2008 of $66.5 billion but now faces a more tenuous market because of the global economic slowdown, an industry survey said on Monday. The amount raised last year up 12 percent over the $59.1 billion raised in 2007, according to the Emerging Market […]

Quintana Capital Group is raising $650 million for its second fund, according to a regulatory filing. It already has secured over $180 million. The Houston, Texas-based firm makes control-oriented investments across the oil and gas, coal and power industries. www.qeplp.com

Last week, peHUB reported on two Siguler Guff funds-of-funds that are in the final stages of fundraising: It’s second BRIC fund-of-funds and its third distressed fund-of-funds. The former is within $100 million of its target; the latter has crossed its target by $800 million. Not bad for a crappy market, although massive interest in distressed investing has surely helped. Today we learned of one more Siguler Guff fund, which has the majority of its commitments in the bank: Russia Partners III. The vehicle, which makes direct equity and equity-like investments, bills itself as “one of the largest pure private equity presences in Russia and the Former Soviet Union.”

Endurance Capital is raising up to $1 billion for its second fund, according to a regulatory filing. The New York-based firm invests in public and private financial institutions, and is run by Edwin H. Yeo.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German lender HSH Nordbank is negotiating with its owners over a fresh infusion of capital following writedowns and higher provisions for loan losses in the billions, Handelsblatt reported. Citing financial sources, the German business daily wrote in a story due for publication on Monday that the bank — partially owned by U.S. […]

Alinda Capital Partners has hit its $3 billion target for its second fund, which will invest in global infrastructure efforts. The fund is still open and is expected to hold a final close in the third quarter, according to peHUB sister publication Buyouts magazine. The fund is a fairly remarkable achievement for Alinda Capital on multiple fronts, including the difficult fundraising environment, the fact that it only closed its debut fund—also at $3 billion—in 2007 and because the firm has yet to make an exit. But Alinda Capital has been extremely active. Its portfolio includes BAA Ltd., an operator of eight airports in the United Kingdom and Italy, including Heathrow Airport in London; American Roads LLC, which owns and operates five roads

Private equities still outperform public equities, according to new data from Thomson Reuters (publisher of peHUB). On the other hand, that's a bit like saying that you only lost three fingers instead of five, or that at least your house fire didn't spread to the toolshed. The numbers are through Q3 '08, so take them with a giant grain of anachrony (PE returns will drop like stones in the next report): Buyout performance fell from both the prior quarter and the prior year, but still came in at positive 12.2% for the five-year horizon. This dropped to 8.3% for the three-year horizon and -8.2% for the one-year horizon. Each of these figures compares favorably to the S&P 500 and NASDAQ over the same period. This is even true once venture capital performance is thrown into the mix. Get more data after the jump...

Marathon Asset Management has secured over $805 million in commitments for a Special Opportunities Fund, according to a regulatory filing. The fund is open-ended, but expects to cap commitments at $1 billion.

Harvard Management Co., manager of the Harvard University endowment, announced plans to lay off 25% of its staff. This is expected to include investment staff. Pensions & Investments reports that the cuts began this week.

LONDON (Reuters) – Debt funds set up by real estate private equity players could capture as much as a fifth of the global property lending market in 2009 as banks recoil further from the credit-starved sector, Swisslake Capital AG’s CEO said. Chief Executive Bernhard Koehler told Reuters many private equity funds originally set up to […]