VENTURE CAPITAL POST

The leveraged buyouts in Europe are surging as US distress investors purchase existing bank loans at steep discounts and move to take over the companies by exchanging their debt for equity in "loan-to-own" deals in the wake of the financial crisis.

The general consensus of research firms and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) experts believed that the brisk activity of dealmaking will keep its momentum till the next year.

During the financial crisis when the deal markets were quiet, banks parted ways with their senior investment bankers. Now that business has slowly revived, lenders are seeing that they are left with junior bankers that are a little wet behind the ears.

Investors have received billions of euros from European companies so cautious about the economic outlook they could find nothing better to do with spare cash, but many now want boards to snap up rivals instead - and are rewarding them when they do.

Turin, Italy-based car maker Fiat SpA restarted negotiations to purchase the remaining shares of US-based auto manufacturer Chrysler Group LLC, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Frankfurt, Germany-based private equity firm Nordic Capital said on Friday it has raised €3.5 billion ($4.8 billion) for its eight buyout fund amid decreased volatility in Europe.

Australia-based international packaging giant Amcor has agreed to buy Constar International Holdings' US assets for an unconfirmed sum, in a court-supervised transaction under the US Bankruptcy Code.

Lucio Tan, the chairman and chief executive of Philippine Airlines Inc (PAL) is expected to finalize the majority stake sale in the flag carrier next year with San Miguel Corp (SMC).

The revival of initial public offerings in the US and Europe which started this year is set to continue next year, the Financial Times reported.

Sweden-based online payments company Klarna has bought Germany-based firm SOFORT in an acquisition deal valued at $150 million to become one of Europe's biggest independent payments alternative.

Norway-based oil company Statoil ASA (STO) said on Tuesday it has decided to invest in the Shah Deniz gas field development in Azerbaijan, together with its consortium partners.

PA Group, the parent company of UK's national news agency Press Association, is to sell its weather unit MeteoGroup to private equity group General Atlantic in a deal valued at £160 million (€190 million).

Ford chairman Bill Ford, Jr. invested in San Francisco-based startup QuickPay through his venture firm Fontinalis Partners to help improve on-street and off-street parking experience.

Despite the discount of costs to run hedge funds in the Asian-Pacific region, Citigroup Inc's recent survey revealed that not all hedge funds in the region are successes in expanding its assets and achieving profitability.

2013 Nobel Prize winner and University of Chicago Professor Eugene Fama told Reuters that the world's economy is in danger of a potential global recession next year due to the high debts incurred by governments in the US and Europe.