Christopher Witkowsky

Harvard’s endowment has lost 22% of its $40bn portfolio value since June. It is bracing for up to a 30% drop in value for the year, once its receives fully updated private equity and real estate valuations.

The global buyout firm had objected to the $2.15bn bid submitted by Bain Capital and Hellman & Friedman and said the bankruptcy auction process was driving away alternative bidders.

The global buyout firm will eliminate 100 of its 1,000 employees as the firm tries to adjust to contractions in global financial markets. It will also shut its Menlo Park office.

The largest telephone carrier in Hawaii cited a heavy debt load, increased competition and market turmoil as reasons to seek protection under Chapter 11 while it restructures its business.

While stressing it continues to honour capital calls, CalPERS has said it is not atypical for it to ask GPs to delay requests for funds. The pension has confirmed it sold more than $2bn in private equity holdings on the secondary market last year, including interests in Carlyle and Landmark funds.

Shares in the publicly listed firm continued to drop amid dismal third quarter reports, but one analyst sees a bright future ahead for Blackstone. Fortress Investment Group shares reached their 52-week low at $2.

The Apollo Global Management and TPG-backed casino operator has struggled in the faltering economy with dwindling revenue and heavy debt loads. The company is seeking to restructure its debt to extend maturities and reduce its outstanding principal.

Trouble in the retail sector presents opportunity, with 'some of the greatest fortunes' due to be made by savvy investors over the next year, according to John Howard, CEO of Irving Place Capital, formerly Bear Stearns Merchant Banking.

Oklahoma-based Laredo, seeded by Warburg last year, has used equity financing from the New York-based firm to make acquisitions and continue drilling in the ‘mid-continent’ region of the US.

Following HarbourVest’s decision to walk away from a signed secondary transaction last week, sellers of private equity fund interests are concerned that buy-side MAC clauses will complicate secondaries activity even further.