Private equity: After the fall

European private-equity firms escaped the full effects of the tech collapse that hit their US peers so hard last year. But they could hardly escape the atmosphere of panic and have trimmed their sails, avoiding riskier start-up-style ventures and giving more attention to buy-outs and blue-chip companies’ disposals of non-core businesses.

Finding love the second time around

Not so long ago, private-equity firms seemed to have the road to riches well mapped out. Funds were returning multiples of money to investors virtually overnight. Every bet on a new technology was a winning one, with returns of up to 78% within six months being touted. Buy-out firms, meanwhile, were acquiring companies, making superficial changes and realizing massive gains by floating or selling them off to a trade buyer a year later.

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