Firms and Funds

NEW YORK (Reuters) – KKR Financial Holdings LLC (KFN.N), a debt fund managed by private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., said on Tuesday it had received a listing standards notice from the New York Stock Exchange. KKR Financial said it was notified that it had fallen below the NYSE’s continued listing standard, which […]

Following Dan’s news that HRJ Capital, the over-committed fund of fund manager, will soon cease to exist, I asked several players in the FoF industry: Is this the first of many? Will we see more fund-of-funds sparring with their warehouse lenders before eventually disappearing? The consensus on this question was a pretty strong “no,” with […]

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) has retained firms BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan to manage $2.5 billion in assets and provide support to PBGC’s in-house investment staff. Press release: The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) today announced the selection of investment firms BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan as strategic partners to manage […]

(Reuters) – CIT Group (CIT.N), a commercial finance firm, said on Wednesday it raised $1.15 billion of regulatory capital through a swap of notes, part of a plan to get access to government funding. CIT said $2.41 billion of old notes were tendered, and it will issue new subordinated notes and give investors $547 million […]

AXA Private Equity, a global PE house headquartered in Paris, has announced the opening of an 8th office in Vienna, to be led by Thomas Wilfling and supported by Marton Hunek and Dimiter Tschawow. Press release: AXA Private Equity is opening a new office in Vienna thereby boosting its presence on Eastern European markets in […]

(Reuters) – The funding status of U.S. pensions has been “devastated” by sharp declines in the stock market this year and U.S. pensions are expected to register record underfunding levels for 2008, Standard & Poor’s said on Tuesday. Standard & Poor’s analyst Howard Silverblatt expects pension funds of companies in the benchmark S&P 500 index […]

(Reuters) – Blackstone Group LP said on Tuesday it plans to liquidate two hedge funds as a lack of outside investing amid tight credit markets will prevent them from getting big enough to be meaningful to the company. The private equity firm plans to consolidate its distressed securities fund with GSO Capital Partners, a hedge […]

(Reuters) – Cerberus Capital Management plans to pay 20 percent of year-end withdrawals in cash and suspend the remaining withdrawals for investors in its Cerberus Partners fund, a source briefed on the matter said on Tuesday. Cerberus plans to suspend year-end withdrawals for up to one year, founder Stephen Feinberg said in a letter to […]

(Reuters) – U.S. private equity fund Blue Point Capital Partners, which helps mid-sized firms in the United States invest in China, is eyeing new opportunities to help Chinese companies invest abroad, its Asia managing director said. With U.S. companies cash-strapped by frozen credit markets, private equity firms such as Blue Point are changing strategy. Blue […]

“Giving money back is something VCs did after the bubble, but PE firms will never do it.” That’s what I was told six months ago when I asked GPs struggling in the fundraising market if they’d ever decide, “Maaaaybe we don’t need that much money in this environment.” Then firms like Blackstone and Madison Dearborn lowered their targets. Then rumors of LPs missing their capital calls spread like wildfire. And now we have the next logical step: Firms allowing LPs to scale back their commitments. Yesterday the Wall Street Journal reported that TPG had followed in the footsteps of Permira, allowing its investors to cut their commitments to the $20 billion vehicle by as much as 10%, or $2 billion. TPG is the second firm to allow such a move, but the Permira (the first) move looks a bit different and here’s why: TPG is much more benevolent than Permira.