The leveraged buyouts in Europe are surging as US distress investors purchase existing bank loans at steep discounts and move to take over the companies by exchanging their debt for equity in "loan-to-own" deals in the wake of the financial crisis.
United States
U.S. stocks best year since '97
U.S. stocks closed out their best year in more than 15 on Tuesday, rising modestly on a strong consumer confidence reading that kept 2013's upward bias intact to the end.
Private equity funds seek to diversify to achieve return targets
Private equity firms are increasingly seeking to partner with U.S. companies rather than buying them outright, as they struggle to find ways to put their huge piles of money to work at a time when frothy markets have made takeovers expensive.
Commodity hedge fund Higgs Capital winding down -founders
Commodity hedge fund Higgs Capital Management, which manages some $250 million, will wind down and return money to investors, its founders said in a note on Monday.
Mondelez inks deal to sell SnackWell's stake to US private equity firm
Illinois-based snack company Mondelez International Inc has entered an agreement to sell a controlling stake in its cookie and cracker business, SnackWell's, to Connecticut-based private equity firm Brynwood Partners for an undisclosed amount.
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Irvine, California-based business analytics firm CoreLogic bought Oakland, California-based catastrophe risk modeling firm EQECAT for a yet undisclosed sum from its parent company ABS Group.
The world economy should snap a three-year stretch of slowing growth in 2014, although the upturn over the next 12 months looks likely to be incremental rather than a leap forward.
The American Bankers Association, a representative of majority of the community banks in the US, said the provision on banning investments in collateralized debt obligations will result to the lenders losing $600 million in the process.
While US and foreign banks do away with risky investments like municipal bonds, hedge funds had taken advantage with the loss of a competitor and increased their positions in such assets, a Barron's report said.
The general consensus of research firms and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) experts believed that the brisk activity of dealmaking will keep its momentum till the next year.
Research firm CB Insights revealed in its latest report that IPO activity will most likely be the most active in the technology sector as over 500 companies have healthy trajectories and high valuations.
Carl Icahn has proposed that Apple increase its stock buyback program to $50 billion but Apple cited reasons why shareholders should not vote for it.
Tim Cook, incumbent chief executive of Apple Inc, has received $4.25 million in salary and bonus for the fiscal year 2013. A proxy filing by Apple also revealed that the tech giant's chief executive did not receive stock-based compensation for the last two fiscal years.
SAC Capital Advisors UK's Massimo Amati, Stanislas de Caumont and Robert Harris have agreed to join rival hedge fund Balyasny Asset Management. Other portfolio managers and analysts are departing SAC after the firm decided to shut down its London office.
