Wall Street Folly

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The latest from the SEC: Surprise inspections may be on tap for money managers; Carlyle making Cuomo probe go away with $20M payment; Morgan Stanley fined $2.1M over rogue trader's overpriced credit derivatives

Excellent Vanity Fair piece: Might some private equity firms be on the financial brink? Carlyle? KKR?; More losing hedge funds going activist "to do something to justify their existence"?; Grabbing control of companies through distressed debt

Carlyle's Rubenstein predicts weakness for hedge funds & private equity for years; Ramius is closing four funds; Avenue's Lasry thinks that "now is a phenomenal time to buy"; 20% of hedge funds history in 2 years?; New Star trying to halt talent exodus

Hedge funds with India focus down an average of 46% in '08; Ramius considering HK unit closure; Carlyle raised $673M for buyout fund focusing on small European tech companies; Buyout debt coming home to roost

Apollo raising £1.1B to chase distressed debt

The chase for distressed debt is getting more and more crowded as Apollo is the latest to raise money.  It's looking for over $2 billion for new fund that will buy troubled loans from European banks. 

Other players involved in the distressed debt market include Blackstone, which raised a separate $1.3bn (£697m) fund to invest in the area, and Carlyle, which raised $1.35bn.
 
  According to recent figures from Private Equity Intelligence, distressed debt funds raised 38pc more capital in the first six months of the year globally, bringing in a total of $33bn.

Apollo seeks £1.1bn for distressed debt - Daily Telegraph

Another one bites the dust: Carlyle shutting down its Blue Wave hedge fund

Another Carlyle Group fund has run aground and is liquidating.  It's multi-strategy Blue Wave fund, which has seen assets drop from $900 million when the fund opened its doors in 1997 to around $600 is going the orderly liquidation route:

Another one bites the dust: Carlyle Capital is finished as lenders move to seize assets

It's finally over for Carlyle Capital, Carlyle Group's mortgage bond fund.....

Talks on a so-called standstill agreement with lenders failed, Amsterdam-listed Carlyle Capital Corp. said in a statement last night. Through March 12, the company has defaulted on about $16.6 billion of debt, and any remaining debt is expected ``soon'' to go into default, according to the statement.

Carlyle Capital sought refinancing on its residential mortgage-backed securities. Those negotiations failed late yesterday after a pricing service used by some lenders reported a decrease in the value of its mortgage-back assets, the firm said. Carlyle expects additional margin calls today of $97.5 million.

``The basis on which lenders are willing to provide financing against the company's collateral has changed so substantially that a successful refinancing is not possible,'' Carlyle said in the statement.

Carlyle Capital Fails to Reach Accord; Lenders to Seize Assets - Bloomberg

UBS loses another top banker: French president's half brother heads for the Carlyle Group

UBS' revolving door saw another top banker heading through the exit: Oliver Sarkozy, French president Nicolas Sarkozy's younger half-brother, will be joining the Carlyle Group:

Olivier Sarkozy, 38 years old, is giving up his job as UBS's global co-head of financial institutions to co-head a Carlyle Group unit investing in the financial-services industry. Mr. Sarkozy was seen as one of the most prominent remaining bankers at UBS after a string of high-profile defections and resignations.

"I leave UBS with great sadness," said Mr. Sarkozy, who is the half-brother of 53-year-old French president Nicolas Sarkozy. The relationship raises the question of whether Carlyle, which has in the past employed former top government officials, may be hiring Mr. Sarkozy for his political connections. Through a Carlyle spokesman, the younger Mr. Sarkozy says he has never and will never use his personal relationship with his brother for any professional gain.

Private equity seeking to fill the financing gap with sovereign wealth fund cash

Not only is Blackstone lookiing for other than traditional bank financing, but so too are Carlyle's David Rubenstein and Terra Firma's Guy Hands. And unsurprisingly, sovereign wealth funds are among the deep pocketed firms being approached.

Private equity firms are now approaching sovereign wealth funds for loans for big leveraged acquisitions, filling the gap left by investment banks struggling with the credit squeeze, leading buy-out bosses said on Wednesday.

Guy Hands, head of Terra Firma, and David Rubenstein, head of the Carlyle Group, told the Super Return conference in Munich that private-equity firms were already talking to wealthy state-backed funds in the Middle East and Asia about raising debt