OVERVIEW
Fundraising continues apace and there’s no obvious sign of deal flow slowing. Results are harder to call: after all, the effectiveness of investments being made now can only be sensibly judged once they have exited some years down the line. But there seems to be no shortage of available exit routes for the right assets.

In the introduction to this market report, we consider some of the worries that keep today’s generation of mid-market investors awake at night. Fiercer competition, government interference, employee activism and the ever present prospect of a market correction – all reasons why the environment for Europe’s middle market is sobering as well as stimulating.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction – Defying the odds
Sponsor article – Not just about the money
Mid-market debt – Complex, sophisticated
Sponsor article – Rising to the reporting challenge
Sector focus – Funds with a difference
On the record – Henry wells, close brothers corporate finance
Supporter article – A force for good
Operations – Fighting failure
On the record – Frederic Bucher, DLA Piper
Fundraising – Crowded, but optimistic
On the record – Paul Cunningham, Barclays Private Equity