February 2010 Issue

The time has arrived to improve systems and practices at the firm level.

New guidelines announced near the end of 2009 by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants will require more valuation due diligence by investors. The general partners who make this job easier will look better in the eyes of LPs.

Chris Ullman will now serve as both global communications chief and managing director for the global private equity giant, an unusual step within the private equity industry.

Want to avoid annual surprise audits? Don't provide in-house custody of client assets.

In the wake of controversies over investments by firms such as Lone Star and Carlyle, South Korean tax authorities are reportedly pushing to eliminate the exemption on capital gains taxes that US investors currently enjoy.

Mezzanine and distressed debt funds led the pack with the best average returns in the third quarter of 2009 as the State Street Private Equity Index showed a second consecutive period of growth.

US and international accounting boards are still striving to reach a unified set of accounting standards in 2010 - which will likely mean more headaches for CFOs.

Proposed EU regulations covering the private equity industry have received more than 1,000 demands for amendments by MEPs, indicating that the process of achieving a final bill could stretch on even longer.

Republican Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts’s election this week could help ensure that pending legislation in the US Senate – which would require many private equity firms to register with the SEC – will come out more to the industry’s liking.

The White House hopes to ‘put an end to the risky practices that contributed significantly to the financial crisis’ by forbidding commercial banks from owning private equity or hedge funds.

Limited partners need appropriate NAV information to effectively report, and getting the right information in a timely manner can be challenging.

Jeffrey Gundlach allegedly set up his firm DoubleLine Capital, which is partly backed by Oaktree, by stealing TCW’s client information.

Fundraising figures for 2009 show that for the first time ever RMB-denominated funds surpassed those raised in dollars.

Landlords of investment property have been exempted from IFRS changes that would have forced them to exclude property values and rental incomes from their balance sheets.

As regulations governing private fundraising multiply, private equity firms are increasingly considering creating internal broker-dealers. TPG has had such a unit since 2007.

Senator Debbie Stabenow’s comments could mean that GPs can breathe a sigh of relief, but the fate of carried interest is far from clear.

PEM takes a look at how Apollo Investment Corporation’s stated valuation policies changed between its 2008 annual report and its 2009 annual report.

The UBS private placement team and Quadrangle’s former marketing head were paid a total of $500,000 contingent on a vote not to terminate a fund’s investment period.

SEC veterans Bruce Karpati and Robert Kaplan will lead the new unit, which the commission is creating to strengthen its expertise on alternatives, including private equity.

For US private equity firms, investing in the emerging markets means increased compliance costs. By Jonathan Drimmer and Thomas Best of Steptoe & Johnson.