Regulation & Legal

Peter Struck, head of the SPD faction in the German parliament, is calling for rules to limit private equity’s ability to take controlling stakes in some German companies.

Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Madrone Capital Partners have paid $1bn to take a minority stake in hotel group Global Hyatt Corporation, as its family owners prepare to split the business up.

Global real estate firm Hines and investment partner CalPERS have reportedly sold the 919 Milam office building in downtown Houston to Chicago-based Transwestern Investment Company.

The municipal government is making 20 plots available to investors and will be considering offers starting next month.

Chicago-based Harrison Street and New York-based Kaplan Development Group have joined forces to develop, redevelop and acquire senior housing properties throughout the Northeast and Southeast US.

Sir David Walker has published his recommendations on how UK private equity must improve transparency. The consultative report focuses on three areas: annual reporting by large portfolio companies; annual reporting by GPs, and the co-ordination of industry-wide performance data.

The newly formed lobbying group has released its first white paper in defence of private equity, coinciding with the first day of the Senate Finance Committee’s hearings on the taxation of carried interest.

The Senate Finance Committee’s second inquiry into carried interest featured witnesses who support and oppose the carried interest designation as capital gains, but they unanimously agreed that one industry should not be singled out over another for tax purposes.

Global private real estate investment firm CB Richard Ellis Investors has appointed three professionals to its global investor services team as it looks to bulk up the department.

Duke Street Capital’s managing partner Peter Taylor has emphasised his support for Sir David Walker’s drive for greater transparency in private equity, after successfully deflecting criticism about the industry at this morning’s Treasury hearing.