ACAS' closure of its Frankfurt office makes quite a bit of sense by the time you get to the press release's line about the office's accomplishments: €153 million invested? Is such an amount even material to ACAS? Was the office intended to do deal volume, or to make ECAS more high-profile for European investors? If the outlook for private equity deals isn't terrific in Europe and the office isn't free to run (salaries are likely significant; it was a whole team, right?), consolidating in London might make quite a bit of sense.
Now, about London ... anyone know what it's done lately?
ACAS has "more than 135 investment professionals" worldwide, though it's not clear whether this takes the Frankfurt closure into account. Interestingly, when you click the link on ACAS' site, you get a directory with locations, titles, and names ...
... including Myung Yi, managing director of ACAS' special situations group. This is an area in which I expect ACAS' management to be paying special attention, as the world is now awash in special situations. Interestingly, Mr. Yi is listed as a board member of The New Piper Aircraft. Remember Piper Aircraft, ACAS' above-FAS-157 exit earlier this year? Apparently ACAS hasn't washed its hands of Piper altogether: after making money offering a line of credit and bonds with warrants, ACAS still has personnel on its board. Is there some kind of service agreement between the companies? Is ACAS leaving a connection open in order to marke future services? Continuing to make money on good companies is good business, I'd think. Anyone know what's going on there? Is that just an out-of-date link?
Let's hope ACAS continues to find good places to trim expense and succeeds in maintaining and finding new sources of revenue.
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