Editor’s Foreword 2013: PE 2.0 — The Rediscovery of Private Equity

One of the good news stories is that the changed general economic and market conditions caused by the euro crisis have led European investors in particular to continue to view private equity favorably compared to other asset classes. Institutional investors will increase the share of private equity in their investment portfolios over the next three to five years, not least in order to spread their funds more broadly, to fulfill their return promises and to circumvent more strongly what are expected to be highly volatile equity markets. They also believe that both institutional investors and fund managers, and likewise governments, need to change their attitudes and behavior toward the industry more, and that associations should do more to defend the industry so that it can provide the market with its full potential in terms of wealth, job creation and competitiveness. Less good news is that regulatory changes and the macroeconomic environment currently pose the greatest risk to the continued positive development of private equity.

Financial institutions are conserving their own funds because they have to comply with the new requirements of the supervisors, and the capital market is gaining in importance as a source of funds for companies. Promotional banks also see themselves as winners of the crisis development. With 520 billion, KfW is the third-largest bank in the country and will gain in importance because of its unbreakable business model.

Most deals are still expected to involve enterprise values of between EUR 50 and 250 million; headline-grabbing mega takeovers in the billion euro range will largely fail to materialize due to a lack of willingness on the part of banks to provide financing, as will IPOs, which in Germany in 2012 could be counted on one hand.

It is also clear that China ventured boldly into larger acquisitions in the German SME sector for the first time in 2011/12. Not only among China's state-owned enterprises but also among European-Chinese funds such as ACapital, based in Belgium and Hong Kong, interest in German technology with potential for expansion into Asia appears to be unabated.