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February 11, 2008

 Past Issues

Cover Story

For Sale

In 1941, Time magazine's Henry Luce coined the phrase 'American Century' to describe the growing stature of the United States on the world's stage. The ongoing shift in global economic power, though, might define the current century as that of the 'Emerging Market,' embodied by the sovereign wealth fund. These funds, with trillions of dollars in their coffers, have benefited from growing demand for commodities such as oil and -- in the case of China -- trade with the US and other markets. The heft of the sovereign funds' buying power has at the same time been magnified by a weakened US dollar.

Editorial

Nice Try

So Fitch, Moody's and S&P have decided that the time is right to tweak their ratings systems for structured finance products. Well done. Not to pile on, but these actions do indeed seem to come some time after the horse has left the barn -- taking a few hundred billion with it. There's been no shortage of criticisms leveled at the 'Triumvirate of Trouble,' and much of it seems justified.

Energy

Barclays' Power Play In Energy

The power and utility arena may not attract much attention and conjures up images of old economy, smoke stacks or something to buy when playing Monopoly board games. But, it certainly has not gone unnoticed among Wall Street banks.

Global Investing

Lincoln's Journey Overseas

When expanding into Europe, most US firms start in London and work their way onto the Continent. Lincoln International took a different path. The Chicago mid-market M&A boutique first arrived overseas in January 2006 in Frankfurt, and established a base in Vienna in April 2007. Last month, Lincoln unveiled its London branch, giving it a total of seven offices on both sides of the Atlantic. On Feb. 27, Lincoln will announce the opening of a Madrid office.

VC-Backed Firms Stay Private Longer

Venture capital investors are putting more money into later-stage companies in the US and Europe and requiring more progress before allowing the companies to go public, according to research from Dow Jones.

Hedge Funds

Still Room for Small Hedge Funds

Small hedge funds continue to be rolled out, despite the crowded space and challenges of raising capital, attracting assets, and ultimately being able to consistently perform.

Investment Banking

Banks' Outsourcing Options Mature

Some investment banks are changing how they run their outsourcing operations in countries such as India or China by building their own center in the region or hiring a third-party provider to support their in-house capabilities. This is a twist from five years ago when banks relinquished certain in-house responsibilities and hired companies overseas to perform functions such as business processes, information technology and research -- ultimately to cut costs.

LBOs

Leveraged Loan Market Still Choppy

A confluence of factors has undercut the leveraged finance market, putting the syndication efforts for large leveraged buyout loans at risk.

M&A

M&A Drivers Taking Wrong Turn

It's the economy, stupid. While that may have been the well-worn rallying cry of the Clinton campaign (the first one, that is) way back when, it's also increasingly appropriate for the current M&A market.

Personnel File

Obama Staffer Joins PE Shop

Just in time for Super Tuesday, Chicago-based private equity firm GTCR Golder Rauner announced it hired Kevin Malover, who was most recently chief technology officer for Senator Barack Obama's Presidential campaign.

Private Equity

Secondary Market Starts to Pick Up

The credit market retrenchment has dislocated large leveraged buyouts, but it's proving fruitful for another less visible segment of investors within private equity: secondary market players.

Roundtable

Cleantech Comes Of Age

It's not hurdles that face the cleantech industry. It's an outright obstacle course. But the industry continues to make huge gains, thanks to changing attitudes and the ongoing escalation of traditional energy costs.

Week on the Street

GMAC Posts 4Q Loss, Sees Ratings Cut

GMAC Financial Services, the financial services firm owned by General Motors and Cerberus Capital Management, posted a fourth-quarter loss of $724 million, down from net income of $1 billion in the final quarter of 2006, largely because of mortgage-related losses in its ResCap business unit.

Icahn Adds 'Blogger' To Resume

Move over, Matt Drudge. Carl Icahn announced he is launching his own blog, 'The Icahn Report,' where he will write about corporate governance topics and respond to reader questions and comments.

Duff & Phelps Pursues Distressed M&A

Investment banking and financial advisory shop Duff & Phelps announced the formation of a special situations M&A practice group targeting middle-market companies and private equity firms.

Fitch To Change CDO Ratings Methodology

Fitch Ratings last week said a review of how it rated collateralized debt obligations in the wake of the credit storm prompted it to make a number of key changes to its rating methodology for CDOs of corporate bonds and loans.

Deutsche Evades 4Q Subprime

Deutsche Bank's fourth-quarter net income fell to €969 million, or €1.93 a share, from €1.8 billion, or €3.56 a share, in the fourth quarter of 2006, but the German banking giant managed to avoid additional subprime-related write-downs. Deutsche Bank had reported €2.2 billion, or $3.1 billion, in write-downs in the third quarter.

Securities in Registration

Securities In Registration

EQUITY and DEBT Issues in Registration. The following is a list of planned new offerings that have been registered with the SEC in the past two months, but have not yet come to market. Deals that have been withdrawn are excluded. The list is broken out into two sections: equity and debt. Initial public offerings are identified by an (IPO) flag. Outstanding shelf registrations are not listed here, but new shelf registrations are listed weekly in the New Registrations section of this magazine. To add or delete listings, or to request corrections in this section, please contact Sylvia Figel at (973) 353-7120.

Aftermarket Performance

Aftermarket Performance

Best and worst IPO performance for 2008, along with performance of recent stock offerings.