Southern Europe unquote” would like to thank all those who attended the second annual unquote" Italia PE Congress in November and made 2008 such a fantastic success

This one day private equity conference, held in English, focused on core issues influencing the private equity market, successful competitive strategies and investment potential in Southern Europe.

Meticulously designed with input from the leading institutional investors, venture capitalists, fund managers and bankers, the congress has been confirmed to possess the most thorough and technical programme of all private equity events in the region.

We have already started planning for the 2009 event. If you would like to be part of it let us know now.

Highlights from 2008 include:

• Champagne Roundtable addressing the financial climate in 2009. Katharina Lichtner, MD and Board Member of CAPITAL DYNAMICS, Simone Cimino, CEO, CAPE NATIXIS and Paolo Garroffo, Investment Director of IDeA are among speakers who gave their forecasts

• How to source and construct the best deals with expert players like Gianluca Andena of PERMIRA and Marco Fumagalli of 3i

• An in-depth turnaround case study featuring Andrea Bonomi of INVESTINDUSTRIAL and Ducati and a technical distressed debt report

• The ins and outs of institutional requirements for fundraising in Italy and the success investing in regional funds in the Mezzogiorno with Peter Mayrl, Invesment Director, ALLIANZ PRIVATE EQUITY PARTNERS and Britta Lindhorst, Managing Director, GENERALI PRIVATE EQUITY PARTNERS, and John Holloway, Director, EUROPEAN INVESTMENT FUND

• The latest on company valuations in Italy, how to work with Italian family businesses with Fabio Sattin, Chairman, PRIVATE EQUITY PARTNERS and Ben Wootlff, Associate Director, CONTROL RISKS

• A debt capital market update from IKB's leveraged finance department and comparison to using mezzanine in Southern Europe

• Portfolio company perspective: Claudio De Conto, Chief Operating Officer, PIRELLI, shared his experience working with private equity

  What delegates and speakers said about our past congress:

  "To be honest, I believe that the Unquote event is becoming the most technical one about PE in Italy. I'm very pleased with the event's success."

  Mara Caverni, Partner Transaction Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers

  "Thank you for the opportunity. I very much enjoyed the meeting."

  Andrea Bonomi, Chairman and Founder, InvestIndustrial

  "Thank you for having organised such a great event."

  Fabio Sattin, Chairman and Founding Partner , Private Equity Partners

  "It was a pleasure participating to a very successful conference and debating with you the issues of the day on the Italian Market. Look forward to collaborating again soon."

  Robert Tomei, CEO and Founder, Advanced Capital