Posts Tagged ‘private equity’

Bulls Start to Sniff Around African Economy

Friday, June 17th, 2011

south-african-money.jpeg
(photo credit: ヘザー heza)

A company named Helios just unveiled its second big fund composed of equity investments in African securities. The entirely private-equity fund is the largest ever created in Africa, and it seems to show that investors are becoming more and more interested in the emerging markets there.

The idea behind investing in “emerging markets” is kind of the same as the idea behind buying low and selling high. Sure, there’s always the risk that a low-priced stock means it’s a bad company and you’ll lose money on your investment. But if the stock does well, you make money. Lots of money. Same deal with emerging markets.

Since investors are basically amateur fortune-tellers, constantly trying to predict how companies and markets will perform in the future, this new investment in Africa means that someone, somewhere, thinks that things are about to go really well in those emerging markets.

Stay tuned…

Who Owns Facebook?

Friday, March 4th, 2011

who-owns-facebook.jpg

i.e., Who’s profiting from your news feed addiction?

Facebook isn’t publicly-traded, which means you can’t buy stock in the company on any stock market. But it seems to have found plenty of well-heeled investors without reaching out to the great unwashed masses (i.e., us).

Goldman Sachs-Facebook Deal Actually Was Too Good To Be True

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

“It was supposed to be Wall Street’s hottest tech deal in years: the private offering of as much as $1.5 billion in shares of Facebook Inc… Goldman bankers burned up the phone lines in the first week of January, pushing many of their best American clients to invest in the deal. And then, on Sunday and Monday, those same advisers were on the phone with those same clients with some bad news. They wouldn’t be getting any Facebook shares, after all… Goldman worried that the media spotlight surrounding the private offering might violate U.S. securities laws and expose the firm to legal action.”

What do you think?

How would you feel if your bank promised you something it couldn’t deliver? How much would you risk to be one of the first investors in a hot company like Facebook?

Private Equity is…

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

Private equity is that part of a company or shareholder’s assets that are not traded publicly. Since you cannot buy or sell these assets on a stock exchange, you have to find a buyer in some other way.