Firms and Funds

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Private equity firm Apollo Management LP is among the largest creditors of Lyondell Chemical Co., Bloomberg reported, citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The U.S. operations of LyondellBasell, the world’s third-largest petrochemical company, filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, under the weight of a massive debt load and […]

HONG KONG/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China and Belgium plan to raise about 3 billion yuan ($439 million) for their second joint private equity fund with a focus on small Chinese companies, sources briefed on the plan said on Wednesday. The planned fund, to be called China-Belgium Direct Equity Investment Fund II, follows a similar fund launched […]

This article originally appeared at the web site of Buyouts magazine, where Bernard Vaughan is an Associate Editor. CapitalSouth Partners has extended the target closing date for its third fund a full year because of market turmoil. Buyouts reported in March 2008 that the Charlotte, N.C.-based firm was set to close CapitalSouth Partners Fund III LP with a target of $330 million in May 2008. But in spring of last year the managers of the fund saw prospective investors were starting to delay commitments amid the growing economic uncertainty so they decided to extend the fundraising to May 2009, a source familiar with the effort told Buyouts. CapitalSouth, which invests in lower middle-market companies, began raising the fund in May 2007. No investors have reneged on previous pledges, however, and the fund has picked up several new investors this time around, such as the

The Carlyle Group has concluded fundraising for Carlyle Partners V, as first reported by LBO Wire. The final total is $13.7 billion, which is short of the original $15 billion target. www.carlyle.com

TOKYO (Reuters) – Daiwa Securities Group Inc (8601.T), Japan’s second-largest brokerage, said that it would drop its plans for a large private equity fund after talks with Blackstone fell through. Daiwa had been in talks with private equity firm Blackstone Group LP (BX.N) to form a fund targeting Asian companies, Daiwa Securities Chief Executive Shigeharu […]

U.S. buyout firms raised $233 billion for new funds in 2008, according to data released today by our sister publication Buyouts Magazine. This represents nearly a 22% decline from 2007 totals, and could be even steeper once fund size cuts from firms like TPG Capital are taken into account. It is the buyout market’s first […]

Rasmala, a Dubai-based regional investment bank, has raised its second private equity fund with $120 million in capital commitments. The Sharia-compliant fund will focus on mid-market opportunities in the MENA region. www.rasmala.com

Leigh Clifford has joined Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. as a senior advisor. He is the current chairman of Qantas Airways, and the former CEO of Rio Tinto.

In the last month or so, coverage of private equity has gone from cautious to murky to bearish to downright apocalyptic. The descent has been so rapid, in fact, that it's almost rendered Michael Wolff's recent Vanity Fair article on private equity MOA (moot on arrival). His piece, titled "The Ultimate Bubble," asks the question on everyone's mind: Is private equity doomed, to what extent and which specific people or firms? Wolfe nails it when he says: "Chances are that what you're doing with your idle hours as a PE man is trying to figure out who deserves to crash and burn before you." (We at peHUB have our money on Apollo going down first, among the big boys) He makes the point that PE hasn't crashed yet, because we've yet to see much blood in the water, and that's partly because you all are so damn private. But in the time between his writing the article and it going to press, some of his arguments against a PE crash have now come to fruition! For example, he says, at least PE firms haven't given money back yet. TPG did so last week. He says PE firms haven't announced any layoffs. Enter Blackstone, Carlyle, American Capital, AIG, and probably others we don't know about. Add that to last week's dubious BCG study predicting almost half of all PE firms could cease to exist in the coming years. The study was met with a sneer (slightly from me, largely from commenters), yet the idea isn't that far-fetched. Both Wolff and BCG touch on a topic that may have started months ago as nervous whispers but has amplified to a worried roar and will only snowball in the new year: Private equity firms are in trouble. So in 2009, expect to defend your industry and reason to exist. There are a laundry list of things working against you right now. For his part, Wolff blasts PE for pretending to know how to

LONDON (Reuters) – Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN.L) will acquire Credit Suisse’s (CSGN.VX) fund management arm in an all-share deal valued at 250 million pounds ($363.3 million), boosting its funds under management by almost 50 percent and adding clout to its sales and distribution network. Adding to earlier fourth-quarter losses, Credit Suisse said on Wednesday it […]