Private Equity Wire Newsletter

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NEWSLETTER | 9 Oct 2020

Private Equity Wire hosted its US Awards in conjunction with Bloomberg

In what has been a year unlike any other, Private Equity Wire hosted its US Awards this week, compiled in conjunction with Bloomberg. The virtual awards networking event, which took place on Thursday, included a keynote speech by Michael Rees, managing director and head of Dyal Capital Partners.

The winners represent the best in the US private equity industry, from GPs to service providers – all the various parts of the private equity ecosystem. Bloomberg provided the data on which the nominations for the top-performing private equity fund managers were based, across varying asset classes and investment strategies.

In other news Abris Capital Partners, a long-term private equity investor in Central Europe, launched its own proprietary ESG Scoring Application earlier this year. The software, created over the first half of 2020, allows the firm to track more than 500 criteria relevant to environmental, social and governance factors across each of its portfolio companies.

In a video interview published this week, Private Equity Wire speaks to Monika Nachyla, partner at Abris Capital, about the most important features of the firm's new ESG Scoring Application software, as well as her views on the state of ESG investing in the CEE region and how the pandemic will affect impact investing going forward.

This week also featured a 'new normal' Q&A with Stuart Blair and Stewart Haworth, directors of debt finance at OakNorth Bank.

OakNorth Bank is sector-agnostic, focusing mainly on lower mid-market businesses and established property developers/investors.

The bank, which has UK restaurant fast food chain LEON in its portfolio, has continued to lend throughout the pandemic cycle – just as it did following the Brexit referendum in 2016 – with over GBP45million in sponsor-backed deals approved since lockdown.

2020 was expected to be the year when valuations would finally come down and present a ‘perfect vintage’ for private equity buyout firms, affording them the opportunity to buy assets at more reasonable purchase price multiples. James Williams explores why this hasn't happened in his latest feature for Private Equity Wire.

Meanwhile, LBO funds recorded a significant fall in returns during the first half of this year, according to eFront’s latest Quarterly Private Equity Performance report.

The coronavirus pandemic hit LBO returns sharply in the first half of 2020, as the economic effects of lockdowns and varying degrees of restrictions around the world started to be felt, the data showed.

Owen Morris, operations director at Doherty Associates, penned a guest feature where he looks at the importance of GDPR compliance in private equity.

"The ICO has remained vigilant when issuing fines to companies that have suffered data breaches. During the pandemic, Easyjet was fined a record GBP183 million following the data breach of up to nine million customers," he writes.

At the end of last week, PEWire covered the launch of Arcano AM's new private equity fund aimed at institutional and private banking investors, which is going to invest at least 80 per cent in the secondary market, while the remaining 20 per cent will be allocated to direct co-investments in companies.

Karin Wasteson
Editor, Private Equity Wire

Private Equity Wire names Private Equity Wire US Awards 2020 winners, hosts virtual networking ceremony

Fri | 9 Oct 2020, 13:16

In what has been a year of extreme turmoil and unprecedented challenges, the team at Private Equity Wire is very pleased to announce the winners of this year’s Private Equity Wire US Awards, compiled in conjunction with Bloomberg.

Fri | 9 Oct 2020, 13:16

In this video interview, Private Equity Wire speaks to Monika Nachyla, partner at Abris Capital, about the most important features of the new ESG Scoring Application software, as well as her views on the state of ESG investing in the CEE region and how the pandemic will affect impact investing going forward.

Fri | 9 Oct 2020, 13:16

OakNorth Bank is sector-agnostic, focusing mainly on lower mid-market businesses and established property developers/investors, and is active throughout England with offices in London, Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds and East Anglia.

Fri | 9 Oct 2020, 13:16

2020 was expected to be the year when valuations would finally come down and present a ‘perfect vintage’ for private equity buyout firms, affording them the opportunity to buy assets at more reasonable purchase price multiples.

Fri | 9 Oct 2020, 13:16

LBO funds recorded a significant fall in returns during the first half of this year, according to eFront’s latest Quarterly Private Equity Performance report.

The importance of GDPR compliance in private equity

Fri | 9 Oct 2020, 13:16

By Owen Morris (pictured), operations director at Doherty Associates – The ICO has remained vigilant when issuing fines to companies that have suffered data breaches. During the pandemic, Easyjet was fined a record GBP183 million following the data breach of up to nine million customers.

Fri | 9 Oct 2020, 13:16

Arcano Asset Management has launched a new private equity fund aimed at institutional and private banking investors, which is going to invest at least 80 per cent in the secondary market, while the remaining 20 per cent will be allocated to direct co-investments in companies.

Fri | 9 Oct 2020, 13:16

This webinar, which will take place at 10am ET on 15 October, 2020, will ask a panel of GPs to share their insights on how they have continued to monitor the performance of their portfolios during the lockdown.