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The Aftermath

August 18, 2008 - By May 2007, faultlines in the subprime market were becoming apparent. New Century had filed for bankruptcy and other mortgage lenders had been tripped up by problem loans—-but the Fed chief, Ben Bernanke, told a banking conference in Chicago the financial markets are “better than regulators at allocating credit.” Days after the first meeting of New Century creditors, Bernanke said there was little chance problems in a subset of the multi-trillion dollar mortgage market would spill over into the broader financial system or the broader economy. What a difference a year makes.

Apax Selling Stake To SWFs

August 18, 2008 - Apax Partners is planning to chart its next big move with the sale of a 10% stake to Australian and Singaporean sovereign wealth funds, valuing it at $2.9 billion, or £1.5 billion, according to news reports last Tuesday.

Univision: After The LBO

August 18, 2008 - When Spanish-language media giant Univision Communications was acquired by a five-member private equity consortium for $13.7 billion on March 30, 2007, the buyers paid a multiple that would be unheard of in today's market: 12 times debt-to-Ebitda. That debt continues to plague Univision almost 17 months after it went private.

The Year Of SWFs

August 18, 2008 - While many have been wounded in the credit crunch, at least one group of financial-services players has been buoyed by the crisis: sovereign wealth funds.

They Said What?

August 18, 2008 - A look back at some of the more memorable quotes relating to the chaos in the US financial markets.

PE Firms Wrestle With Change

August 18, 2008 - When Kohlberg Kravis Roberts announced that it was going public earlier this month via a deal with its Amsterdam-listed affiliate, almost a year after last summer's credit crunch took hold and the firm initially registered to go public, the move represented more than its next growth step. Its new plan to go public punctuates a larger point: the private equity business is changing.

Wall Street Shuffle

August 18, 2008 - James Cayne. Chuck Prince. Zoe Cruz. Erin Callan. Just a few of the more prominent names that come to mind when considering the fallout in individual callings on Wall Street since the tsunami in the credit markets began its assault last summer.

Getting The Captive Insurance Co. Right

August 18, 2008 - Many financial executives are already familiar with the concept of forming and operating a small captive insurance company for risk management and wealth-building benefits--and those can be considerable.

Confessions Of A Subprime Lender

August 18, 2008 - Richard Bitner, who left GMAC to start his own mortgage company on the eve of the subprime boon and sold his business before the market collapsed, recently spoke with IDD about his tell-all memoir, Confessions of a Subprime Lender: An Insider's Tale of Greed, Fraud and Ignorance.

Bad Loans Eat Away At Agency Folios

August 11, 2008 - When Freddie Mac announced late last month that it will double compensation paid to loan servicers handling late payments on its mortgages, the housing agency tacitly admitted that the housing industry’s problems were now clearly affecting higher-rated mortgage debt, the prime arena.

Banking Group Proposes Reforms

August 11, 2008 - The credit crisis that has settled on Wall Street for a year is the most 'challenging [financial] crisis in post-war' history, former chief executive of the New York Fed and vice chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee, E. Gerald Corrigan, said last Wednesday.

Great Idea

August 11, 2008 - So, I read some of the 138-page report from the Corrigan Crew, and it didn't take long for something to jump out at me. My overriding thought was this: how much of these seemingly well-thought-out recommendations will be implemented, and to what effect?

Only Strong Survive

August 11, 2008 - A daunting market environment kept IPO issuance at bay last month and delivered a disheartening start to the third quarter. Only 47 IPOs were priced in July raising $748 million, the lowest monthly deal count in five years, according to Dealogic, making a traditionally slow summer month painfully slower.

Private Equity Gets Heated In India

August 11, 2008 - When news surfaced this past week that Indian business mogul Anil Ambani's Reliance Capital was planning to raise $1 billion for a new India-focused private equity fund and Tata Capital had appointed banking veteran Shailendra Bhandari to run its private equity operations, the developments reinforced how much interest India's corporations have in investment prospects in their own backyard.

Looking To The North

August 11, 2008 - The decision by Goldman Sachs to open a hedge fund administration services branch in Toronto not only underscores the bank's desire to expand its North American business, but also illustrates the growing status of Toronto as a financial-services hub.