Current thoughts - January 2005

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INSEAD class mate loses wife on honeymoon in Thailand I just received word that [kept anonymous], who was in my promotion at INSEAD in 1999, lost his newly-wed wife to the December Tsunami in Thailand. They were married in December 2004 and were on their honeymoon in Khoa Lak. I feel so sad for him. "Life is a bitch" is the only thing I can say. I am sure that there are many other similar stories out there. But it is only when it hits somebody that you can relate to, that the horror of it sinks in.
January 14, 2005 03:02 PM

Vækstfonden to be privatized Just before Christmas, the Danish minister of economic and business affairs, Mr. Bendt Bendtsen, announced plans in the business daily Børsen for a partial privatization of Vækstfonden. His idea is to take one billion DKK from Vækstfonden’s capital and raise an additional two billion DKK from private investors for a new three billion DKK fund.

I have a couple of concerns with this. First of all, I worry about the prospect of the government controlled (and bankrolled) Vækstfonden emptying the Danish LP market for two billion DKK, leaving nothing for private danish GPs. I doubt that the private GPs raise even close to this amount annually, and I know that a number of them are currently trying to raise new funds. I have a lot of respect for the team that Vækstfonden has put together, but if the end-result is that Vækstfonden gets all the cash and the private sector GPs close shop, because they cannot raise new funds, then this will certainly not help the development of a viable Danish VC sector. Secondly, I dislike the idea that Vækstfonden by default is to be the management company for this new fund. Why not invite bids from private GPs for the management of the fund (or portions of the fund)?
January 13, 2005 04:37 PM