In its latest quarterly report, Stenham examines the effect political transition has had on the three largest economies in the world: the US, China and Japan. It also looks at the year ahead and the many questions it raises, among them: will Japan be able to reverse two decades of weak economic performance into growth? And will the US exit quanitative easing? Finally, it concludes that markets are more investable and fundamentals are coming to the fore in asset and security performance.

In this edition of DealMarket's PE Digest: Global PE activity was up in 2012 while deal numbers were down, according to data from Zephyr, the M&A database; Magister Advisors' predictions for the next billion-dollar VC exit; and M&A activity forecasts for 2013.

According to the annual report: Ten challenges facing the private equity sector by Altius Associates (“Altius”), the US buyout market faces a challenging environment of rising purchase price multiples for high quality companies while in Europe, GPs have innovatively found sources of capital amongst sovereign wealth funds and public fund managers willing to bridge the pre-IPO gap.

In this week's digest from DealMarket: Environmental, social and government (ESG) risks in targets can be a dealbreaker; the biggest dealmakers in private equity; could a mega buyout be on the horizon for Dell? and legal firm Weil's predictions for 2013.

In this edition of its private equity spotlight, Preqin reviews the key fundraising features of the past 12 months and the main highlights of 2012, including significant buyouts and venture capital deals and exits.