Firms and Funds

SHANGHAI/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Citigroup Inc (C.N) will close its private banking unit in China, which targeted the country’s growing ranks of millionaires, and fold the operations into its consumer banking arm as it streamlines its businesses, sources familiar with the situation said on Tuesday. Citigroup declined to comment on the restructuring plan but said […]

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Japanese brokerage Nomura Holdings Inc (8604.T) plans to shed another 80 jobs in the next few months in Asia, excluding Japan, sources familiar with the matter said. Nomura joins other major banks in slashing more jobs across Asia, a region hit hard by the financial crisis. In September, Nomura bought the […]

BEIJING (Reuters) – New Horizon Capital, a China-focused private equity firm, said it had raised 1 billion ($146 million) for its first yuan fund to invest in defensive firms in a challenging economic environment. “We’ve been looking at sectors and companies that will possibly overperform when the economic conditions turn better,” Cher-Teck Quek told Reuters. […]

Last Thursday, I suggested that 2009 might be a rebound year for publicly-traded private equity stocks. Not because of improvements in the underlying financials, but because such securities had experienced major gains during the year's first five trading days. Really the type of anecdotal daydreaming that would never have seen the light of day before the advent of blogs, and the public markets are already swatting it away. An updated look at public private equity shows that most issuers have flattened back out over the past two trading days. Blackstone Group stock, for example, rose from $7.14 on market open January 2, and got up to $8.10 on January 6. Now it's back down to $7.28. American Capital began the year at $3.68 per share, rocketed up to $7.31 and today finished back down at $5.81. Fortress Investment Group began at $1.27 per share, but has been stuck at around $2.25 for three days running.

Westview Capital Partners has held a first close on just over $248 million toward its second fund, a source familiar with the situation said. The firm will then hold a final close on $300 million in late Q1. The fund, Westview Capital Partners II LP, has a hard cap of $325 million. If this sounds familiar, it's because I just filed a fundraising story on West Hill Partners. The names are similar, but other than their shared location (Boston), West Hill Partners and Westview Capital Partners are unrelated. Westview came to market just as the fundraising market began to slide in September. Probitas Partners, which declined to comment, is acting as the group's placement agent.

West Hill Partners continues to work toward a first close on its debut fund, after more than a year of fundraising. Since November of 2007, the firm, formed by alums of PE firm J. W. Childs, has marketed its first effort. The firm hasn’t held a first close to date but expects one this quarter, a source said. Boston-based West Hill seeks to raise $500 million and has engaged Park Hill Group as its placement agent. The effort has experienced the challenges of a first-time fund in a difficult fundraising market but continues to push ahead with the effort, the source said. West Hill was created when Dana Schmaltz, former J.W. Childs President, left the firm in mid-2007.

Following last week’s interview with secondaries intermediary, Colin McGrady of Cogent Partners, here is the other side of the coin: A Q&A with the buyside. I've spoken with David Tom, a Vox Populi contributor and investment pro at VCFA Group, a buyer of middle market secondary interests in LBO, mezzanine and VC funds. Will Q4 numbers make much of a difference in valuations? I think they will. Not that we’re pricing off of the GP’s valuations, but investment committees and sellers will. So if we’re telling them to take a loss, it’s different than the fund manager telling them to take a loss. It’s true that we don’t care what the GP’s valuation is, but it helps negotiating a deal. Deals can collapse when it gets to the investment committee. Either way, we won’t get Q4 numbers until February or so. Does that give you an incentive to wait to do any deals? From our perspective, we’re still going to do the work, but we’re realistic in it taking longer to close deals.

LONDON (Reuters) – Credit Suisse has established a new division to provide restructuring advice to companies and private equity firms in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). The bank’s restructuring team will focus on providing advice to companies on balance sheet, liquidity and liability management issues, according to a memo circulated to staff on […]

Sir Michael Rake, the chairman of the Guidelines Monitoring Group, set up to review private equity firms’ compliance with the Walker Guidelines has praised the private equity industry. “I am very encouraged by the extent of the commitment which the private equity industry has shown to the increased levels of transparency and disclosure that have […]

LONDON (Reuters) – Turnaround consultancy firm Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) said on Monday it had created a new European M&A advisory team to cater for growing demand for specialist advice on takeovers of distressed companies. The move, which sees 12 new advisers join the firm, underscores expectations of a bumper year for deals involving companies […]