Wednesday, July 18, 2007

SigEx Ventures : Private equity companies going public
by Ioana Madalina Tantareanu

As a result of the tech-bubble bear market, most asset classes outside of U.S. large cap stocks, U.S. government securities, and municipal debt have been deemed "non-traditional" or "alternative" in some way.One of the biggest beneficiaries of this trend was private equity and the investors have flooded firms such as Blackstone and KKR with cash.Opportunities in the marketplace are researched by private equity. They are different from the standard stock analysis,which tends to focus on relatively arbitrary quarterly earnings per share estimates, because they analyze companies to determine whether the lines of business are worth more together or apart and they try to find unexploited opportunities. Richard Gere's character in "Pretty woman movie" would be the personification of today's "private equity." There are many options in having and managing a company. Sometimes it`s the best thing to do to tear the company apart and sell it, but sometimes you may leave it whole and shake up the business model.Going public doesn't necessarily take away these company`a flexibility.Warren Buffet's company Berkshire Hathaway has as it`s core business insurances.Geico and General Re are some of the primary lines of business.This hasn`t stopped Berkshire Hathaway from investing in, or acquiring, a host of other companies, like companies from high-tech electronics to making candy. Investors buy shares of the holding company, not the private equity subsidiary, refering to taking the private out of private equity.These will be publicly traded companies who engage in private equity portfolio management as their primary line of business, in order to cash in on the recent boom and successes and to provide liquidity for the firm's shareholders.
by Ioana Madalina Tantareanu
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