TPG chief decries 'foolish policies' on dollar
By Henny Sender in Dubai

Published: December 12 2007 02:00 | Last updated: December 12 2007 02:00

David Bonderman, co-founder of private equity firm TPG, has added his voice to those who have slammed the declining value of the dollar.

"The US has adopted unbelievably foolish policies," Mr Bonderman said at a private equity conference in Dubai. "We are heading in the direction where we will get to one dollar equalling one yen."

Mr Bonderman is considered the most outspoken of the heads of the private equity firms and is perhaps the most widely respected among his peers.

A few weeks ago, speaking in Hong Kong, David Rubenstein, co-founder of Carlyle Group, also referred to the weak dollar as a problem.

The issue has particular resonance in the Middle East. Kuwait has ended the dollar link for its currency and other Gulf countries are discussing a similar step.

"The market is looking for signals that the dollar is becoming more weak and more irrelevant," said the head of one local private equity firm based in Dubai.

As the giant sovereign wealth funds contemplate whether to deploy their capital in the US at bargain prices, they are caught between the fear that any investment made today may be worth less tomorrow and the countervailing fear that if they hesitate, they may miss the opportunity.

Mr Bonderman predicted that within five years all the major private equity firms would be public, but sounded a note of personal ambivalence.

"Being public is not my favourite thing," he said. "But once one firm goes public, others have to have the same currency. We would like to be at the tail-end."

His audience included executives from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and the Kuwait Investment Authority, as well as from the myriad investment arms of the government of Kuwait.

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