Wednesday, July 18, 2007

SigEx Ventures : Private equity picking up steam
by Delia Cruceru

Although market commentators said that New Zealand’s global buyout is going down, in here the private equity activity is blooming. This year the many deals regarding private equity firms like Yellow Pages and MediaWorks have been transacted. Corporate raider Carl Icahn said “the global boom has reached its peaked” and Blackstone Group, Kravis, Kohlberg, Roberts (KKR) and Carlyle Group capable of paying high prices are waiting for better offers and deals. Paul Chrystal, head of private equity from Goldman Sachs JBWere said that in New Zealand assets are becoming very expensive: “not all people paying high prices are overpaying, but if they are, there's always more risk that they will have a difficult time later. I don't think there's any serious investors in the private equity market who haven't felt the pressure of prices, are worried by it, and are probably more cautious." AMP Capital Investor’s boss says "base interest rates and risk spreads are rising. While we'd seen private equity interest, we hadn't seen transactions on the smaller part of the market. That's clearly changed with Tourism Holdings and MediaWorks.” Chief economist and head of investment strategy of AMP Capital Investors says the boom in the private equity takeover activity will get bigger and will have positive effects.

related story: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10451724
by Delia Cruceru
for SigEx Ventures (http://sigexventures.com)

SigEx Ventures's matrix of properties are quickly becoming leaders in digital telebroadcasting, free content delivery allowing people to easily talk, view, upload and share through free online TV broadcasting, free unlimited global calls, video blogs and SMS. SigEx Ventures invests in projects deploying "free" to add-on royalty revenue models