Incisive Views from Professionals
A Q&A With Frank Gallagher and Peter Drippé, Portfolio Managers at Visium Funds Q1: The Treasury Department recently tightened tax rules to deter U.S. companies from moving their corporate headquarters to lower-tax countries. How will these new regulations impact the current level of mergers and acquisition (M&A) activity? The new Treasury regulations will make […] Read more »
From Activist Insight An Interview With Kai Liekefett and Stephen Gill of Vinson & Elkins Have you noticed an upsurge in activism in the energy industry recently? Kai Liekefett: Up until 2012, activists weren’t really focused on this sector. But in the last three years, there were more than 30 reported activism campaigns in […] Read more »
From PitchBook Data, Inc./Merrill DataSite Private Equity Hotspots – UK for deals, Southern Europe for Fundraising, IT for Growth Deals, Bolt-Ons for Buyouts 2014 hasn’t been the banner year industry professionals were expecting in Europe. Private equity (PE), venture capital (VC) and growth investment deal counts were soft in 3Q, which likely means that […] Read more »
By Torben Ronberg, Head of Sub-Investment Grade at ECM Asset Management “Comeback” is the right way to describe the CLO market this year (Collateralised Loan Obligations – securitised portfolios of predominantly senior secured leveraged loans). Led by the US CLO market, we have seen global issuance YTD in 2014 of a staggering $101.5bn*. 88.5% […] Read more »
The following graphic is taken from “Deal Drivers EMEA” published by Remark, a division of mergermarket. Mergermarket’s H1 2014 Heat Chart, which tracks ‘companies for sale’ stories, shows that there are likely to be strong appetites for dealmaking over the coming months. Activity is spread throughout a range of sectors and countries, indicating that the […] Read more »
By Ariel Markelevich, Ph.D., CMA, and Leena Roselli for Financial Executives Research Foundation, Inc. Based on recently published financial information, Merger and Acquisition (M&A) activity has been on the rise since 2009 with 2013 activity volume valued at $2.9 trillion-the highest since 2008’s $3.1 trillion mark.1 This upward trend has continued into the first […] Read more »
By Mary Bates, Director Silver Creek Capital OVERVIEW Continued complacency seemed to define the second quarter of 2014, with investors seemingly willing to assume that U.S. growth prospects will remain solid and that the Federal Reserve will manage any issues appropriately. This view was evidenced by the continued downward march of volatility across multiple […] Read more »
By Simon Kerr, Publisher of Hedge Fund Insight Eurekahedge has just published its annual review of funds of hedge funds. It is difficult to find any good news in it. The divergence of the paths since the Credit Crunch of the single manager and multi-manager hedge fund businesses is well known, and is reflected in […] Read more »
By Henry Craik-White, Senior Investment Analyst at ECM September was a strong month for the European high yield market. The Barclays European high yield index, ex financials, returned +1.1%, leaving YTD returns at +5.2%. The top performing sectors in September were telecommunications, consumer services and retailers, recording total returns of +2.0%, +1.8% and +1.6% respectively. At […] Read more »
By Simon Kerr, Publisher of Hedge Fund Insight Once in a week is random, twice in a couple of weeks is a potential pattern, but three times in a month is confirmation. The first occurence was the sales of stake in insurance risk manager Nephilia Capital. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts acquired a 24.9% ownership in the […] Read more »