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The letter details that Blackstone is positioning one company — hospital staffing firm Team Health — for an IPO and evaluating the potential for seven others, the source said.
It also says that Blackstone is in the process of five realizations this year — meaning sales of companies it owns. Of these, four have already been announced and one is imminent, the source said.
Reuters – European private equity firms are keen to start bringing their best-performing portfolio companies to market, encouraged by early successes on the other side of the Atlantic.
Last week KKR successfully listed semiconductor business Avago Technologies Ltd and is considering listing a number of other companies as markets warm to new arrivals.
”It is not clear yet whether there will be an IPO window but we believe that there may be an opportunity for strong resilient businesses to float in the first half of next year,” said Kurt Bjoerklund, co-managing partner of Permira.
Financial Times – Blackstonemarked down the value of billions of dollars worth of debt it bought at a discount from Deutsche Bank to zero, demonstrating that the group bet too early on a recovery.
Blackstone bought the debt in April and marked down the value by the end of the year. The private equity group disclosed the markdown in a conference call on Tuesday with investors, who have grown concerned about the impact the global recession is having on the portfolio companies of private equity firms.
Forbes – Private equity investors in Asia are increasingly fearful of fraud within their portfolio companies as the global economic downturn puts mounting pressure on firms in the region.
The global financial crisis has already caused significant damage to private equity-backed companies in Asia, with shares plunging and demand drying up for everything from electronics to manufactured goods.
But corporate fraud, a scourge that can be more prevalent and harder to detect in emerging economies such as China and India, can quickly turn a bad private equity investment into a disaster.
