Private Equity

Vinum Capital Management, a private equity firm based in San Anselmo, Calif., has launched Vinum Capital Partners I, a $250 million vineyard buyout fund.

Private equity firm Summit Partners has closed two new funds: a European private equity fund with €1 billion (US$1.6 billion) and its fourth subordinated debt fund with US$825 million.

San Francisco- and New York-based private equity firm Paine & Partners has hired Bjarni Ármannsson and Frank Reite as operating directors focusing on opportunities in the Nordic region, with an emphasis on the seafood, energy and financial services industries.

Small- and mid-market private equity firms say that the U.S. economy is in a downturn, and that an extended period of market uncertainty would adversely impact p.e. firms.

AIG Capital Partners, a member company of AIG Investments, has raised almost $700 million for a new Latin America private equity fund.

Warburg Pincus has closed its latest private equity offering, Warburg Pincus Private Equity X, at a whopping $15 billion.

The Securities and Exchange Commission last week filed suit against an Ohio day-trader, accusing him of trading based on information he stole from his brother-in-law, a private equity executive.

The Asian Development Bank is committing up to US$100 million in seed capital to five private equity funds with a total target investment of up to US$1.2 billion in clean energy projects in Asia.

Iraq already boasts a hedge fund, and now a top emerging markets investor is casting an eye on its private equity potential.

U.K.-based CVC Capital Partners has raised US$4.1 billion for its latest private equity fund, CVC Capital Partners Asia Pacific III.