Finance

Blackstone Group has good reason to believe that private equity will indeed remain private for the foreseeable future.

Going public might allow private equity funds to avoid SEC regulations being applied to hedge funds.

Today’s announcement of Neiman Marcus’s acquisition by two private equity firms comes on the heels of an accounting restatement, hinting at existing problems that came to light through the suitors’ due diligence.

Two well know private equity firms, Texas Pacific and Warburg Pincus, announced plans to purchase the luxury retailer Neiman Marcus, but disclosed little of how they intend to manage what’s arguably the most high-brow of luxury retail brands.

The SEC is reformulating its regulation of hedge funds, forcing them to choose between the number of investors whose money they manage, and the degree of freedom with which they can manage that money.

Venture capitalists invested more in software than in any other sector during Q1 2005, reflecting the reemergence of an endangered species – business savvy tech entrepreneurs.

At any one point in time, there will be conflicting data, especially in the volatile business of venture capital and private equity. What matters most is taking the correct long-term perspective on the market.

A study by VentureOne and Ernst and Young hastily concluded that the bursting of the tech bubble continues to haunt venture capitalists.

S&P’s Hedge fund index, a composite of fund performance in this investment category, fell just over half of a percent in March, with convertible arbitrage funds suffering what Justin Dew, S&P’s Senior Hedge Fund Strategist, referred to as a ‘perfect storm’ of events.

Ken Whitney, a senior managing director at private equity giant Blackstone, is not worried that new valuation standards will increase the volatility of his funds, thereby scaring off investors.

The private equity community is watching warily as the Securities and Exchange Commission contemplates if and how to regulate hedge funds.

A recent survey by Deloitte suggests that South Africa’s private equity investors are embracing a program established by the post-Apartheid government to promote economic opportunities for black entrepreneurs and businesspeople.

Professors from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business are nurturing the 25 year-old private equity business as it grapples with latent growing pains. Private equity is still struggling to respond to the bursting of the tech bubble and subsequent accounting scandals that overturned the status quo on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley.

Last Monday, the directors of the electronics retailer Circuit City rejected a $17-per-share bid by Highfields Capital Management, opting instead to stick with current strategies to recoup market share and improve earnings. This decision signals the board’s support for the current management. But in announcing the rejection, the company’s chairman, W. Alan McCollough, offered nothing to assure shareholders that this was the right decision.

American venture capitalists and bankers are setting up shop in India to get local tech start ups off the ground, providing critical networking and financial support that is otherwise lacking.