Free Pisces: January 2009

Summary from FT article.

Asia PE deals wre in for a rude awaking in 2008, including rescuing portfolio companies and renegotiating bank covenants on deals signed in headier days.CVC had to invest extra 225mm into PBL media; recap plan was shunned by Packer family to focus on gaming interests.

TPG had problems in BankThai, Taishin Financial Holdings and Japanese finance company NIS gp. Core expertise lies in turning around financial business.
Carlyle group in july abandoned plans to invest in Xugong.

Permima splashed out 840mm for a 20% stake in Galaxy at HK$8.42. Now its at HK$1.
Relative winners were those that kept powder dry, closed new funds or managed to make divestments ahead of downturn.

Affinity Equity and CCMP had exit Mando, a SK car parts maker, before the global motor industry took a nosedive.

KKR had hired Sanjay Nayar to step up investments in India.PE reassess how they invest in INDIA after racking up big losses in India PIPEs.

China PE largely focused on growth capital because of the ongoing reluctance of state-owned enterprises and entrepreneur-led companies to yield control. while the consumer, power and manufacturing sectors continued to benefit the most from private equity investment, more than 80 per cent of respondents expect far higher levels of activity in to China’s clean energy sector.

KTB Securities, South Korea’s biggest private equity fund, is aggressively seeking to penetrate south-east Asia and the US to become a leading investment bank in the region. Started in 1981 by a ex gs guy. It has made investments in about 1,100companies since its inception. Among others, it has bought substantial stakes in Siltron, a semiconductor parts maker; SKM, an audio tape producer; Byucksan Engineering & Construction, a local builder; and Pantech & Curitel, a handset maker.
Advantage Partners - one of japan's largest domestic PE. The scale of the market ... the range of sectors and technologies that are here, has the potential to become a solid private equity buy-out market,” .Changing attitudes to business in Japan were making M&A and private equity – often seen historically as forms of asset stripping – more acceptable as ways of adding economic value. PE of Japanese M&A was only about 4 to 5 per cent, it would grow to the US level of about 25 per cent.

Free Pisces