UK: Walker Report on Private Equity published

At the end of November 2007, Sir David Walker published his report titled "Guidelines for Disclosure and Transparency in Private Equity". This contains guidelines for enhanced disclosure by private equity firms. Amongst the recommendations are the following:

(a) Private equity firms should publish either in the form of an annual review or through regular updating of its website:

- a description of its own structure and investment approach and of the UK companies in its portfolio, an indication of the leadership of the firm in the UK and confirmation that arrangements are in place to deal with conflicts of interest
- a commitment to conform to the guidelines on a comply or explain basis
- a categorisation of its limited partners by geography and by type

(b) A portfolio company should publish its annual report and accounts on its website within six months of the year-end and include:

- the identity of the private equity fund or funds that own the company, the senior managers or advisers who have oversight of the fund or funds, and detail on the composition of its board
- a business review that substantially conforms to the provisions of section 417 of the Companies Act 2006, including sub-section 5 that otherwise applies only to quoted companies, calling for an indication of main trends and factors likely to affect the future development, performance and position of the company’s business and to include information on the company’s employees, environmental matters and social and community issues.

A copy of the report - which provides definitions of a "private equity firm" and "portfolio firm" - is available here.