The rise of private equity - and how to get a piece of the action

Private equity firms snap-up failing businesses, turn them round, then flog them on, making a fortune in the process. Is there a way in for the private investor?

These days, it is impossible to open a newspaper without reading about the takeover of a well-known company by some obscure private-equity firm. Private equity now seems to threaten even the biggest of firms.

Rumours have just emerged, for example, of a private-equity bid that could "top $11bn". The possible bid for NTL, the UK's largest cable-television provider, and its smaller rival, Telewest Global, came just days after the two announced a merger. Yet the companies said to be involved are hardly ordinary household names - Blackstone Group, Cinven Group, BC Partners and Permira Advisors.

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Annunziata Rees-Mogg

Annunziata was a deputy editor at MoneyWeek, covering financial markets, politics, economics and comment pieces. She then went on to the Daily Telegraph as a lead writer where she wrote a column on young women’s financial issues. She was briefly a member of the European Parliament for the East Midlands region in the UK as part of the Conservative Party.  Annunziata continues to write  as a freelance journalist.