Hosted by Talya Misiri of Real Deals and Alice Murray of The Drawdown, these podcasts aim to provide insight into what we’re hearing, reading, discussing and discovering through our coverage of the private equity market. 

This first episode looks at: 

Key developments over the past week

Talya discusses changing approaches by buyout funds in supporting their portfolio companies, as well as funds becoming ‘rescuers’ as they move into distressed and special situation deals. 

Alice discusses valuations and end of year reporting, where many GPs, alongside their auditors, are buying time on providing key financials to LPs until they can ascertain a clearer picture of the developing situation. 

https://the-drawdown.com/article/hazard-warning-valuations-in-the-midst-of-volatility

What we’ve published

Alice looks at The Drawdown’s April cover feature, which looked at fund finance and the increased flexibility and influence it affords CFOs. In light of C19, she has found fund finance has become an essential life line for PE houses needing to access immediate liquidity. 

https://the-drawdown.com/article/new-powers

https://the-drawdown.com/article/fund-finance-to-the-rescue

Talya highlights recent coverage of Silverfleet’s Neil McDougal, recently named BVCA chair, who announced he is putting his daily commute spend into the Big Issue Foundation. 

http://realdeals.eu.com/article/the-big-issue-new-bvca-chair-leads-support-for-national-treasure

Stat attack

Alice picks up on a finding from eVestment’s Market Lens, which found that since December 2019, nearly 200 documents (and counting) that mention “COVID-19” or “coronavirus” have been added to the Market Lens platform.  

https://www.evestment.com/solutions/investors/market-lens/

Talya points to ESG funds outperforming major indexes and the CIL sentiment tracker. 

 Data from industry analyst Morningstar revealed that over March, ESG funds were overrepresented in the top quartiles and top halves of their peer groups. 

And that, so far in 2020, 59% of  US ESG funds are doing better than the S&P 500 Index while 60 per cent of European ESG funds have beat the MSCI Europe Index.

http://realdeals.eu.com/article/what-does-the-oil-crash-mean-for-esg-funds

What made us smile

Here, each editor discusses something that made them smile, happy, positive, gave them strength. 

Alice picked The Harvard Business Review article: That Discomfort You’re Feeling Is Grief.

https://hbr.org/2020/03/that-discomfort-youre-feeling-is-grief

Talya quoted:

“But imagine what it will be like when it’s all over. Imagine how amazing it will be when they finally give the all clear and people can go out again. The world will explode with joy, there will be street parties and raves and hugging will come back, and you’ll be dancing to all the new songs that people, even now, are composing in their rooms, which will be the most outrageously life-affirming, catchy songs ever written. It will be the best time ever - like the roaring 20s, the summer of love, acid house and Britpop combined. 

“Everything has its equal and opposite reaction - and however sad and worried you feel this summer, next summer will be the best, most exciting and care-free of your life.”