Tuesday’s Headlines: Private Equity Assets Jump Despite Woes

Headlines can be misleading. Despite all the woes of the sector – Mitt Romney, global financial turmoil and a deal making slump – private equity assets hit a record $3 trillion, according to the Financial Times, which writes: “Despite the increased criticism, the private equity industry has continued to attract assets from investors such as pension funds seeking investment returns to meet their obligations.”

Assets under management rose 9.4 percent over the past year – the second highest jump since 2007, but down from 11.9 percent growth the previous year. In 2009, the industry grew by a whopping 37.6 percent.

Over the past month, Texas’s teacher retirement pension invested $6 billion with KKR and Apollo, and Blackstone announced it raised a $16 billion fund.

Skeptics see this as the end of the private equity boom, and others point out that funds are holding assets longer and the number of private equity funds are on the downturn.

 

Other News:

A confusing path to Wall Street success. [New York Magazine]

UBS reported a 58 percent Q2 profit drop on Facebook. [Financial Times]

Banks get tough with hedge fund clients. [Reuters]

ING is in talks to break up its Asian life insurance unit. [Bloomberg]

Top Japanese banks report disparate results. [WSJ]

Deutsche’s Q2 net earnings fell 46 percent on the euro crisis. [NY Times]

BBVA is the latest Spanish bank to report dismal earnings. [WSJ]

The new Swiss National Bank chief took his seat amid soaring reserves. [WSJ]

Insider trading defendant says he was just doing his job. [WSJ]

Berkshire Bank sued 16 of the world’s largest banks over the Libor scandal. [CNN Money]

Tiger management helps next-generation funds. [DealBook]