Pension Pulse

Jan-Henrik Förster of Bloomberg reports the clock is ticking for private equity to spend through tough times: Time is ticking away for private equity firms to get ready for their next wave of deals. Rising interest rates, inflation and recession risks have eroded consumer confidence and left buyout firms facing a new reality of higher financing costs and potentially lower returns. None of which changes the fact there’s more than $1 trillion sitting in their funds that needs to be spent.  “People say there’s no financing available but then our clients are telling us ‘we have a big fund that we have to deploy,” said Umberto Giacometti, co-head of financial sponsors in Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Nomura Holdings Inc. “If you need to deploy, say, $10 billion in four years, and don’t do anything for sixth months, you are under pressure.” The shift is profound for an asset class that for more than a decade was flooded with cash from investors hunting yield in a l...

Alex Harring and Tanaya Macheel of CNBC report the Dow closes 800 points higher on Friday, registers fourth straight week of gains: Stocks rose on Friday despite a tumble in Amazon shares after economic data pointed to slowing inflation and a steady consumer. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 828.52 points, or about 2.6%, higher at 32,861.80. The S&P 500 added nearly 2.5%, to close at 3,901.06. The Nasdaq Composite ended up about 2.9%, to close at 11,102.45. On a weekly basis, the major indexes made notable gains. It was the fourth positive week in a row for the Dow, a first since a five-week streak ending in November 2021. The 30-stock index is up 5.7% this week in its best performance since May. It’s also on track for its best month since January 1976. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are up 3.9% and 2.2%, respectively, for the week . The stock market has fractured this week as investors dumped technology shares following weak results and outlooks from Microsoft, A...

Oxford Properties announced it is expanding its San Diego life science presence with the purchase and lease back of the Ionis campus: Oxford Properties Group (“Oxford”), a leading global real estate investor, asset manager and business builder today announced the purchase and long-term lease back of Ionis Pharmaceuticals’ (“Ionis”) 18.4-acre life science campus and corporate headquarters. Located in the established San Diego life science submarket of Carlsbad, the campus features approximately 250,000 square feet of existing life science and office space. As part of the transaction, Ionis will lease the properties for a minimum of 15 years. The transaction follows on from Oxford’s entrance into the San Diego life science market in February this year via a US$464 million acquisition of a 13-building portfolio. It builds on Oxford’s already robust global life sciences portfolio and growing West Coast presence with high quality assets in the Bay Area and Seattle. The acquisit...