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1. DIGEST 78
SEE WHAT’S NEW AND NOTEWORTHY IN PRIVATE EQUITY THIS WEEK /// ISSUE 78
1 Five Trends in PE for France
2 Top Tech Predictions for Businesses
Preqin Says Buyouts Bounced Back
2 in 2012
3 The UK’s Edge in Financial
Technology Innovation
What’s Better than Consumer
3 Internet for VCs?
3 Quote of the Week: Fabrice Grinda
Streamlined Spending
January 11, 2013

2. FIVE TRENDS IN PE FOR FRANCE
In a report that singled out the emerging team at AXA Private Equity, its expansion and establishment in
the secondary sector, unquote reviewed the very quiet year of PE activity in France. The five trends and
events s of the year in PE in France from unquote are listed below.
Zephyr figures for M&A activity in
France for 2012 also show a decline
of activity by volume, the lowest in
three years. (See Zephyr Graphic)
Unquote’s View on France
Election year: Like the US, France
had an election year with a new
government in place. The result of
more left wing win will not be “as
devastating as expected”, but the
drawn-out uncertainty and the
various U-turns on several key issues
encouraged PE players to keep
activity to a minimum.
Lacklustre dealflow: Dealflow fell by
nearly a third compared to the
previous year to 208 deals, and
overall value took an even steeper
dip to EUR 8.1 billion, less than half
the previous year's total. France
came in third in Europe for overall
dealflow.
Image source: Zephyr
Tough fundraising: For the fourth year in a row, French GPs invested more than they raised, and
fundraising figures for the whole of 2012 are likely to settle at a historically low level.
Few large buyouts: There were no deals greater than EUR 1 billon mark but a couple of large-cap deals
could be reported: Lion Capital acquired eyewear retailer Alain Afflelou from Bridgepoint, Apax France
and Altamir Amboise in a deal believed to be valued at nearly EUR 800 million, and AXA Private Equity
did a EUR 850 billion MBO of Fives Group.
AXA Private Equity goes large: closed a good number of mid-market deals and raised two funds.
According to unquote data, the French GP completed 17 transactions worth a combined EUR 2.4 billion
across Europe.
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3. TOP TECH PREDICTIONS FOR
BUSINESSES
In the last issue we provided some summaries of predictions for 2013 and in
this issue we continue with the top Tech predictions that affect IT
departments, from Ruth Cheesley, founder of Virya.
1. Cloud-Based Phone Calls
2. Further Enhancements to the Shopping Experience
3. SEO Gets Personal
4. Social Signals Take Priority (affecting search engine rankings)
5. Open Source is King
6. Responsive Website Design (frameworks such as the Twitter Bootstrap
and Foundation 3 will be adopted as best practice for website design).
7. Rising Apprenticeships
Image source:
Virya Technologies website
PREQIN SAYS BUYOUTS BOUNCED BACK
IN 2012
Preqin’s latest report says that North American contributed strongly to a global dealflow transaction
volume that reached a post-Lehman high in 2012. Globally, Preqin recorded 2,866 buyout deals, valued
at USD 254.6 billion. It is close to the 2011 level of activity, and a 14 percent increase in the number of
buyout deals in 2010. According to Anna Strumillo, Manager Buyout and Venture Capital Deals at
Preqin, North America witnessed a strong 2012, recording a post-2008 high for the year of 1,590 buyout
deals valued at an aggregate USD 152.3bn. She also said that European deal levels remained low in
2012. However, the USD 24.5bn of European deals announced during Q4 2012 is a 76 percent increase
from the previous quarter, an encouraging indicator for 2013.
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4. THE UK’S EDGE IN FINANCIAL
TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION
The UK has got to be one of the leading locations for banking and finance innovation. It is not our aim
today to theorize why it is more entrepreneurially innovative in this sector than say Switzerland, for
example, rather here’s a summary of some recent financings. In the first week of the New Year, iwoca
raised GBP 2 million from Beyond Digital for its online merchant financing startup, according to PE Hub.
Other startups that are attracting investors include Zopa, Funding Circle and Crowdcube, according to
BBC Online.
WHAT’S BETTER THAN CONSUMER
INTERNET FOR VCS?
PE Hub has a feature on the less spectacular side of technology investment, enterprise software and
networking. The article points out that consumer Internet companies capture the headlines and
attention but that the exits have been strong, with enterprise representing 70 percent of venture exits
in the last two years, and a value of USD 500 million. These exits have “also outperformed” consumer
Internet ventures post-IPO. “Of the top 10 largest IPOs in the last 2 years, all the enterprise companies
in that bracket are trading above their offering prices,” reported PE Hub. The article concludes that
despite the reduction in spending among businesses, growth is predicted for enterprise sector
innovators driven by the increasing expansion of computing power and the growth of big data.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
FABRICE GRINDA STREAMLINED SPENDING
“Very few successful entrepreneurs have the courage
to start over… Once you have a site with 150 million
unique visitors per month and a fully-fledged team
which can do almost anything, starting without
either is daunting. The same applies to material
comfort”.
Image source:
Fabrice Grinda’s Musings blog
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5. Who said it: Fabrice Grinda, Internet entrepreneur and angel investor, co-founder OLX, a free local
classified site. He was an important player in two other successful tech ventures prior OLX.
In Context: In an article entitled “The Very Big Downgrade”, successful entrepreneur, Fabrice Grinda,
describes how he reduced his monthly expenses to a tenth of his previous spending pattern. According
to his report, he shed a house in Bedford, an apartment in New York and sold his McLaren. He gave 75
percent of his non-financial material possessions to charity and most of the rest to his friends and
family. He will keep spending down by staying in hotels in London, Paris or New York. Even with that
expense, he said, his monthly expenses would be more than a fifth of what they most recently were. In
the meantime, “unburdened by the trappings of success and traditional societal constraints”, Grinda
stepped down from his post at OLX and plans to start a new venture, and perhaps start VC fund.
Where we found it: Entrepreneur Country
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