Telegraph.co.uk – 3i Infrastructure, which is 43pc owned by private equity group 3i, said it had exploited an "anomaly in the market" and added it was keen to take part in any purchase of Gatwick, after BAA was told it must sell two of its three London airports.

The fund has bought debt issued by Ireland’s Viridian, Thames Water and Telediffusion de France, adding that the purchases offered higher than equity returns at lower risk.

Michael Queen, a 3i managing partner, said: "Hedge funds are receiving redemption notices and having to liquidate their portfolios. Because capital is scarce at the moment, the prices at which they’re [selling] are clearly at a discount to fair value.

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Tags: beta, bondholders, february-12, federal-reserve, few-days, jenrette, market-sources, sizeable-investments

Bloomberg.com: UK & Ireland – “I’ve never lived through something like that,” Stephen Jarislowsky, the 83-year-old chairman and founder of Montreal-based money manager Jarislowsky Fraser Ltd., said yesterday about the past month on Wall Street.

“I don’t even think the ’30s were like that,” he said in a telephone interview. “At least they had a bank holiday and they closed all the banks. These idiots in Washington didn’t do that.”

On the worst day in global financial markets in 21 years, investors who have seen it all were left shaken. After the U.S. House of Representatives voted down a $700 billion rescue package supported by President George W. Bush and leaders of both parties, $1.2 trillion of market value was erased from U.S. stocks.

“I’m more than worried,” said Jarislowsky, who co-founded his firm in 1955 and oversees C$51 billion ($49 billion). “In a market like this, I’m not looking at opportunity. I am looking at preservation of capital. If governments aren’t careful and this mess isn’t solved fast, capitalism as we know will be wiped out.”

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Tags: bets, fourth-quarter, indefinite-period, investment-firm, investor-sentiment, jet-plane, journalism, market-sources, medallion, newcastle, roel-campos, seriousness, silicon-valley, university-of-illinois