In an informative article published in today´s edition of the Börsen-Zeitung Mr. Walther Becker, who is an expert on the stock exchange, gives a description of the current situation of international private equity (⇒ Wikipedia). Major globally active investment trusts are swamped with funds by their institutional investors says Mr Becker. These trusts which can present real success stories to their investors and offer interest yields well beyond 20 percent p.a. are oversubsribed. According to estimates they could collect 340 billion dollars this year. These amounts will be added to an already existing money pool with an estimated value of 1.3 trillion dollars, which clearly shows how powerful these trusts are.
However, what is missing is the right place to invest for these trusts. In Germany, for example, investment opportunies are said not to be very attractive to them. But since the volumes to be placed in Germany over the next four to six years amount to 11 billion Euros, trusts will nevertheless do acquisitions here, even if the investment turns out to be somewhat overpriced. Nevertheless German companies may still feel relatively protected from the acquisition by such trusts due to German legislation on acquisition, which quite often appears to be too complicated and incalculable to foreign investors. 
More information on the subject of stock exchange, private equity and small and medium-sized entities is availabe here: