Intelligence
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GUEST ARTICLE
By Melanie Pittas, partner and co-head of financial services & Karen Allan, director, haysmacintyre – The private equity industry faced a number of challenges during the pandemic, with the majority of these arising from one underlying issue: uncertainty. These challenges included valuations, investor pessimism and a downturn in investment activity.
PODCAST
In this week’s podcast, Private Equity Wire chats to former Slack Chief Product Officer April Underwood (pictured), whose ‘local retail’ ecommerce platform Nearby recently raised USD21 million in a Series A funding round, about the process of raising money in today’s virtual environment, her experience of conducting meetings and building relationships virtually, and why she decided to raise money now.
RESEARCH
EY’s 2021 Global Private Equity Divestment Study, which was released last week, found that the pandemic has accelerated changes in attitudes to factors that are now affecting the valuation of businesses – in particular digitalisation and ESG metrics.
The report looked at how private equity is refining exit strategies for stronger valuations in a survey of more than 100 private equity executives globally. It revealed that 72 per cent of private equity executives say they expect to capture an ESG premium in businesses they are considering exiting, while 51 per cent of private equity firms regard AI as a critical value
SPECIAL REPORT
By A Paris – As the investment industry continues to face a low interest rate environment and the appetite for private capital persists, the Hong Kong asset management industry is well-placed to benefit from the drive to diversify and broaden allocations across Asia. And although some industry commentators point to further progress needed, the legislative changes and supportive environment being fostered represent a huge leap ahead in the jurisdiction’s competitiveness.
Last year saw Hong Kong introduce a number of legislative reforms, namely the introduction of the Limited Partnership Fund (LPF) regime, amendments to the existing Open-Ended Fund Company (OFC) regime and reforms
PRIVATE DEBT
In light of the recent scandals resulting from mispriced assets, and the broader impact of Covid-19 on the global economy, the need for accurate financial and valuation reporting in private markets – where the underlying assets are largely illiquid and hard to value – is a germane issue for investors.
GUEST ARTICLE
By Gopi Krishnan, VP & managing partner, Consumer Domain & Consulting Practice at Wipro Ltd and Siddharth Raghuvanshi, manager of strategy, alliances & partnership, Consumer Domain & Consulting Practice at Wipro Ltd – Historically, private equity firms have always shown interest in retail. For instance, in the US itself, private equity firms have invested in over 80 major retailers in the past decade.
Private equity firms have been behind the buyouts of some of the most well-known names in the retail sector and invested huge sums of money to buy a retailer, take it private, turnaround the business only to
NEWS
European private credit firm Kartesia has held a final close at the hardcap of EUR1.5 billion for the fifth vintage of its flagship Credit Opportunities fund, following the close of its predecessor in 2017 at EUR870 million.
DEALS
Growth capital investor BGF has completed a GBP5.2 million investment in Odro, a Scottish-headquartered tech business that provides video interviewing and engagement software to the recruitment industry.
BGF has acquired a minority stake in the business in order to help fund a global expansion plan that will see the company opening offices in Australia and North America, as well as adding more than 20 staff within the next two years.
Alongside the fresh capital, Rob Crossland has joined as chairman in connection with the deal. Former founder of the Optionis Group, Crossland is an award-winning entrepreneur turned advisor who has
PODCAST
In this podcast, Private Equity Wire speaks to global private equity group Earth Capital’s investment director Avent Bezuidenhoudt about why investors should care more about water related issues, what can be done to encourage sustainable water-related investments, and which geographies will need to invest in water to offset climate change related risks.
EVENTS
Day two of PEWire Live’s CFO/COO virtual summit featured discussions surrounding how to navigate Covid-related short-term liquidity risks, key cybersecurity and ESG considerations specifically for private equity, ESG reporting and setting the right KPIs, and how private equity professionals can evolve and cater to the demands of the COO role as we move into the new economy amid a post-pandemic recovery.
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
