Regulation of hedge fund and private equity fund managers in Europe is poised to go ahead after European Union finance ministers reached agreement on new rules for the alternative investment fund sector

The Spanish EU Presidency is aiming to close an agreement on the draft hedge and private equity funds directive at a meeting of finance ministers in Brussels tomorrow (16 March), with teething problems on foreign fund treatment threatening to derail a deal. 

Hospitals will be forced to make cuts to pay for a massive rise in the bills for Labour's controversial private finance programme after the next general election.

The taxpayer is paying over £20bn in "extra" borrowing costs for the 700 projects acquired under the private finance initiative, according to FT calculations

Fears are now growing that many private equity (PE) takeovers will go bust. Almost none of the conditions needed for the kind of takeovers that unions were most worried about are now in play:     There is no longer easy cheap loan finance available from banks. Many PE takeovers were highly...

Four private equity houses are to open offices as part of a £200m-plus fund to provide growth finance to SMEs outside London and the south-east

UNI has put out a useful little report (PDF) looking at pension fund investment in private equity as an asset class. It helpfully points out where the labour movement has representation in the funds that are investing in PE (actually this is quite common). It's another sign that unions are developing another element to their engagement with private equity. So far we've had the air war - ...

New proposals approved by the Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference include: Only using private finance when it is shown that this can provide better value for money to the taxpayer than public finance. Allowing local and devolved government to borrow money to invest, rather than having to use PFI. Undertaking better evaluations of the value for money offered by PFIs. Ensuring all PFI projects a...

Two days ago the Spanish finance minister, Pedro Solbes, wrote an article for the FT in which he explained the situation of the Spanish economy and the way the government plans to face the current crisis. This article should be a must read for Alistair Darling and his entire department. When an economic crisis hits home there

Finance Secretary John Swinney faces growing pressure from business and his political opponents as he prepares to set out his plans for a new way to finance government capital projects.