In an attempt to takeover the European junk bonds after the financial crisis, Nycomed, one of the private equity-owned Swiss drugmaker has made a 4.5 billion Euros bid to purchase Solvay SA’s drug operations. The Zurich based company said that it this bid and takeover is finalized it will help them to reach their annual sales figures of $6 million which is why they have gone ahead and made such a high bid to buy Solvay’s pharmaceutical unit and operations. However, the Belgian conglomerate Solvay SA’s has not yet responded to the bid and has informed that they might take a little time to think about it and would not rush through the deal....

The following appeared in June’s Business Diary Botswana:

Private equity (PE) has long been considered a viable way to achieve risk-adjusted returns that exceed those possible in the public equity markets (though per University of Chicago scholar Steven Kaplan, during the three decades ending in 2005, the average private equity firm’s annual return was no better than that of Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index). Accordingly, institutional investors include private equity (or even funds of funds) in order to concurrently achieve optimal diversification and risk premia. And while such “limited partnership interests” demand that investors lock-in their contributions for an appreciable time period, such that general partners can commit to any number of strategies, in recent years the once highly illiquid asset class has given way to a vibrant secondary market available for sellers of private equity assets, which in turn has spread risk and further fueled

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Stephen Blank has an interesting new article on Forbes in which he assesses the economic damage being caused by Russia's inability to effectively reduce legal nihilism and corruption, both of which are dragging on the country's attempt to recover from the crisis.  Sticking out like a sore thumb is of course the second trial of Mikhail Khdorkovsky, which will be in full session during the first state visit of President Barack Obama.  Blank describes the Khodorkovsky trial as a "palpable judicial farce," and if President Dmitry Medvedev is unable to take action to solve the situation it will "confirm the widespread belief that he is merely a tool of his predecessor, a placeholder until Putin resumes the presidency."

When he was a candidate to lead Russia, Dmitry Medvedev denounced the country's "legal nihilism." Now, as president, he has often spoken

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China, India and Brazil are emerging markets investment priorities for private equity firms now poised to capitalize on lower valuations, according to a survey conducted by the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA) and Coller Capital.

“Emerging market private equity funds may benefit from very ripe conditions going forward: asset valuations are finally becoming more reasonable, and there is also a strong appetite for private equity capital because companies have fewer financing options,” said Sarah Alexander, president of EMPEA.

Half of LPs surveyed already in emerging markets will commit additional funds to their investments—and, possibly, others—over the next 24 months.  But certain emerging markets were not dubbed as hot as others; Russia, Central and Eastern Europe and Africa are believed to have an increase in risk recently, the study noted.

That said, Emerging Capital Partners just paid $47.7 million for a minority stake in African insurance group, La Nouvelle Societe Interafricaine

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