Private Equity Info has upgraded its website with a more intuitive navigation, better visual appeal and faster load times.
A subscription to www.PrivateEquityInfo.com provides access to the entire data suite which consists of eight data modules:
Yesterday, The House Financial Services Committee passed H.R. 3818, the Private Fund Investment Advisers Registration Act.
H.R. 3818 passed by a vote of 67-1 and was introduced by Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski (D-PA), Chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises.
H.R. 3818 would amend the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and place new registration and reporting requirements on hedge funds, private equity firms, single-family offices, and other private pools of capital. The bill, however, does exempt funds of less than $150 million (previously $30 million).
Although this new piece of legislation garnered early bipartisan support, it is is still pending a House floor vote.
The Committee is expected to vote on additional pieces of legislation such as H.R. 3817, the Investor Protection Act and H.R. 3890, the Accountability and Transparency in Rating Agencies Act later today.
Bulge-bracket is a term used in corporate finance to describe the largest and often most prestigious investment banks. Although there is no strict metric for this classification, bulge-bracket investment banks typically represent clients with transaction values in excess of $50 million. [NOTE: www.PrivateEquityInfo.com segregates investment banking firms by the enterprise value of the firms’ typical clients. See Corporate Finance Firms article for further details].
Prior to the 2007-2008 sub prime mortgage crisis, bulge-bracket firms dominated Wall Street. However, many of the largest investment banks were highly leveraged, having borrowed sums of money that were too large relative to their cash or equity capital. This borrowing essentially leverages (amplifies) a firm’s returns (up or down), making the firms particularly vulnerable to market movements. The sub prime crisis, therefore had far reaching effects and served as a cleansing of sorts for the financial markets. As the value of mortgage-backed securities in the investment banks’ leveraged portfolios declined, so did the banks’ solvency, which begs the questions: “What happened to the Bulge Bracket firms and where are they now?”
During the sub prime mortgage crisis, major financial institutions failed, merged or were bailed out by governments. Here’s what happened to the five largest U.S. investment banks (not in order of size):
Visit www.privateequityinfo.com/advisory-firms.php to learn more about our database of bulge bracket investment banks, middle market investment banks and business brokers. The directory is comprehensive, up-to-date and includes fully-searchable key executive biographies for each firm.
For each fund under management, private equity firms cycle through a multi-staged process of:
Fund Raising
Most private equity firms raise capital for a fund through investments made by limited partners - typically pensions, endowments, institutional funds, and high net worth individuals - with the private equity firm serving as the general partner.
Prior to a capital raise, private equity firms normally establish a target fund size. Depending on the firm’s track record and the general economic climate, fund raising efforts may either be under- or over-subscribed. New funds for historically successful private equity firms are commonly over-subscribed and may therefore close with capital in excess of the target fund size.
Acquisition Search
Once fund raising is complete, private equity firms begin scouting for potential portfolio investments. While private equity firms enjoy meeting directly with companies interested in selling, often the introduction between a company and a private equity firm is made through an investment banker. www.PrivateEquityInfo.com provides corporate executives, business owners and investment bankers with the ideal information resource to quickly identify those private equity firms that might have an interest in their (or their clients’) company.
Investment in Portfolio Companies
As private equity firms identify potential portfolio companies in which to invest, they go through a merger & acquisition transaction process to acquire these new portfolio companies.
Corporate Growth
Private equity firms will often have a fairly aggressive growth strategy - for both organic and growth by add-on acquisitions - as a means to create value and therefore enhance the valuation of their portfolio.
Divestment - Liquidity Event
Because limited partners do not have an infinite investment horizon, private equity firms must eventually convert equity value back to cash by liquidating portfolio holdings. A divestment could occur in the form of a buyout, initial public offering (IPO), strategic acquisition, or another private equity firm buying the portfolio investment. Regardless of how it transpires, the divestment of a portfolio company creates a liquidity event for the private equity firm, essentially converting equity into cash or more cash-like equivalents.
Capital Gains
Private equity firms make money both from the cash flow that a portfolio company produces while it is owned by the private equity firm as well as from the capital gains realized upon exit. The liquidity event at exit produces and finalizes a capital gain (or loss) for the partnership for that particular investment.
Dispersal of Funds
The dispersal of the capital gain (or loss) from the fund to the limited partners provides the limited partners with a definitive return on investment for the life of the fund.
Next Fund
Long before a private equity firm finalizes its dealings with a particular fund, the PE firm begins the process of raising money for the next fund. In fact, it’s not uncommon for a successor fund within a private equity firm to purchase some lingering portfolio holdings from a prior fund.
Private Equity Info provides a comprehensive database of private equity firms, their investment interests, acquisition criteria, transaction types, portfolio companies and professional biographies. Plus, view other related firms such as hedge funds, mezzanine investors, small business investment companies, valuation service providers, investment banks, institutional real estate investors and senior lenders.
Mezzanine debt is subordinated debt that ranks between senior debt and equity. It is often a more expensive form of financing because it is unsecured (requiring no collateral) and subordinates to senior debt in case of a default.
Mezzanine debt can be used for a variety of purposes, but is generally used in corporate finance deals for growth capital and acquisitions.
Private Equity Info allows you to search the universe of U.S. mezzanine firms by state or alphabetically and view their contact information. You will also be able to keyword search the professional biographies of mezzanine investor executives to quickly determine the right person to approach at a particular firm.
Private Equity Info has expanded its Real Estate Investor data module to include a powerful, new tool that will allow subscribers to keyword search the business descriptions of more than 700 real estate investors.
In addition to searching institutional real estate investors by location or investment focus, subscribers may now quickly identify those firms that present a strategic fit based on the general comments www.PrivateEquityInfo.com tracks for each firm.
Private Equity Info expands database to include professional biographies for the Mezzanine Firm data module.
This data set includes the name, title, email address and professional bio of more than 800 mezzanine investor executives. We also implemented a new search engine on this data module to allow subscribers to keyword search these professional bios.
PrivateEquityInfo.com has ranked the top 30 private equity firms globally in an effort to add transparency to an otherwise fairly opaque industry.
Typically, private equity firms are ranked based strictly on their fund size. However, due to the current economic climate, fund size may not be the most accurate measure of a firm’s current activity and investment capacity.
PrivateEquityInfo.com has ranked the largest, global private equity firms based on a more holistic view, considering a variety of metrics. The parameters include: fund size (of course), current investment appetite, maximum deal size the firm will consider and deployment of capital. This ranking is therefore admittedly subjective.
Individual firm profiles of these private equity firms and others are available at PrivateEquityInfo.com
TOP 30PRIVATE EQUITY FIRMS
1. Bain Capital
2. Texas Pacific Group
3. Apax Partners
4. Blackstone Group
5. Carlyle US Venture
6. Silver Lake Partners
7. Fortress Investment Group
8. Apollo Investment Corp.
9. Advent International
10. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
11. BC Partners
12. CVC Capital Partners
13. Candover Investments
14. Terra Firma Capital Partners
15. First Reserve Corp.
16. Providence Equity Partners
17. EQT Partners
18. American Capital
19. Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe
20. Permira
21. CCMP Capital
22. Goldman Sachs Capital Partners
23. Cinven
24. 3i US
25. Warburg, Pincus & Co.
26. Hellman & Friedman
27. General Atlantic
28. GTCR Golder Rauner
29. Charterhouse Development Capital
30. PAI Partners
Senior lenders are typically commercial banks or other institutional lending firms that provide senior debt to corporations for a variety of purposes, such as:
Even though senior debt has first priority in the event of a liquidation and is therefore a lower risk investment for the lender (compared to junior, subordinated debt, mezzanine debt or equity investments), currently, favorable access to the debt capital markets is limited as banks have severely tightened lending requirements in the current economic climate.
To quickly locate senior lenders appropriate for your company, Private Equity Info provides a comprehensive database of more than 4,600 senior lenders searchable by loan types & purposes, location of headquarters and number of offices.
The Obama administration has recently launched the Investment Adviser Act, which requires all Private Equity firms and other similar entities managing assets greater than $30 million to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as of June 2009.
The measure is part of Obama’s recovery plan, which attempts to regulate and restore public confidence in the investment markets. In an effort to implement the recovery plan and avoid threats to America’s financial apparatus, Private Equity firms, Hedge Funds firms, Venture Capital firms, and all other private capital firms will now have to register with the SEC as a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) and provide periodic information regarding their assets under management.
Registered Investment Advisors (RIA) will submit Form ADV to the SEC, which will specify the type of assets under management, the investment style, and the key officers of the RIA.
FIND PRIVATE EQUITY FIRMS AND HEDGE FUNDS
Private Equity Info provides a comprehensive database of private equity firms, their investment interests, acquisition criteria, transaction types, portfolio companies and professional biographies. Plus view other related firms such as hedge funds, mezzanine investors, small business investment companies, valuation service providers, investment banks, institutional real estate investors and senior lenders.