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Technology fever starts a gold rush
 Less than 12 months ago, many of Europe's private equity operators gloomily confronted the prospect of recession in the UK. How would an economic downturn in their largest market impact portfolios? Today the mood could scarcely be more different. Across Europe, internet and telecommunications fever has set the venture capital community alight, and unleashed a veritable scramble for technology investment in the broadest sense. ...more
EARLY STAGE INVESTING:
Government kick-start leads to German renaissance
When Falk Strascheg, one of the doyens of early stage venture capital in Germany, co-founded Technologieholding in the late 1980s, it took him several years to raise even the meagre Fl 6m ($2.7m) of investment which allowed him to get going. Now his company has a team of 26 investment managers and its 1995 fund is showing a return of 130 per cent with several realisations still to come through. ...more
EUROPEAN INVESTORS:
Entrepreneurs catch the eye
Private equity may still be an acquired taste in the UK and continental Europe, but there are clear signs that investors are fast developing a growing appetite for everything from management buy-outs to the most embryonic start-up companies. ...more
INTERNET FUNDS:
Resources aplenty as equity groups pile in
"There has never been a better time to be a European internet entrepreneur," says one UK-based equity fund manager.Companies ranging from nimble equity funds to banks are finding it increasingly easy to attract resources from institutions and private investors to funnel into internet investments. ...more
SPAIN:
Internet sparks start-up activity
When Nicolás Merigó was working in Chile as finance director of a Banco Central Hispano joint venture last year, he did a bit of research in his spare time on how the internet was affecting the US financial services industry. "I realised sooner or later these changes would hit Europe and I felt the bank should have a role," he says. ...more
SCANDINAVIA:
An attractive destination
The broad economic, political and cultural parallels between the Scandinavian countries belie significant investment culture differences, particularly in relation to private equity.Despite their similarities, Sweden, Denmark and Norway have developed at different speeds so that the potential for future deal flow is not uniform across the region. ...more
US INVESTMENT BANKS:
Competition becomes fiercer
Private equity used to be so simple for the leading European firms. Auction processes were won by the likes of Cinven, CVC Capital Partners, Apax Partners and Candover. Only the names of the deals changed, if not those signing the cheques. ...more
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