Sunday 4 March 2007

Private equity again

There's more discussion of private equity this weekend. There's a long bit in the Observer talking to Peter Rossman from the IUF which you can read here. Private equity also gets a mention in Simon Caulkin's column.

I think one of the most balanced pieces of commentary so far has come from Martin Wolf in the FT. He's not a person I find myself agreeing with a lot of the time but this piece goives both sides of the argument and research to back it up. Contrast that with this rather mindless piece in the Telegraph's business commentary. Apparently 'transparency' is the only real problem with private equity. Clearly everything would be ok if they just explained why they load companies up with debt. They just need to communicate their tactics better.

Which incidentally is what the industry is planning to do. The BVCA has set up a working group to draft some voluntary best practice standards.

PS There's also a pretty shallow bit about hedge funds as activists in the Observer.

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