Week in Review: SOTU, BDCs, and Emerging Markets

On Wednesday, President Obama delivered his fifth State of the Union Address. While it was unlikely he was ever going to address private capital markets directly, his promise to bypass Congress has worried some senior PE professionals — primarily for tax reasons.

As the NYTimes explained, “In theory, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service could act without Congress’ involvement to change how the existing tax law applies to this form of income, which is known as carried interest.” However, theory is a long way off from practice.

In other news, distressed investors are seeking new capital in 2014, BDCs have some advantages over PE, and Marcum Cronus released it’s Q1’14 Energy Bulletin.

Opinions:

• Marcum Cronus published its Q1’14 Energy Bulletin
• Endowments’ alternatives allocations didn’t plummet as expected in 2013
• One big reason why there are so many more billion dollar start-ups
• Q4 exits will likely bolster PE earnings
• The last time private equity saw valuations this high was in 2008
• Middle-market investment banking goes Goldman
• More than half of distressed investors to seek fresh capital in 2014
• On PE-backed IPOs
• BDC’s big advantage on private equity
• Emerging market jitters: No it’s not 1997 all over again

Speaking of emerging markets…Alternative Emerging Investor magazine is currently offering a free copy of their latest issue in exchange for a quick 30-second survey

Transactions:

• The Jordan Company to acquire Transilwrap Company
• Azalea Capital invests in Turbine Generator Maintenance
• F.N.B. Capital Partners acquires Uncle Charley’s Sausage Company
• Tower Arch Capital recaps Future Telecom
• ThinkHR acquires HR That Works
• American Tire Distributors buys Hercules
• Vendere Partners to acquire Shumway, Ink.
• Fluidigm acquires DVS Sciences for $207.5 million
• Clarke Inc. sells Gestion Jerico to TerraVest Capital
• Packers Plus acquires both Eagle Downhole Solutions and CMC Machine Works

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