Euan Hamilton - The Royal Bank of Scotland Euan Hamilton joined The Royal Bank of Scotland Leveraged Finance in 1996, initially as Director responsible for Glasgow and the West of Scotland and subsequently moving on to become Director responsible for Scotland. In late 1999, Euan moved to London to head up the deal execution side of the London operation. In July 2001 Euan was appointed Global Head of the bank’s Leveraged Finance, Mezzanine, CDOs and Private Equity fund investment businesses, with

Liquidity – on both the demand and supply side – and its far reaching effects were the main topics raised. Private equity houses came in for particular stick – partly because they have taken advantage of the flush market to force banks and investors to accept pricing levels and leverage multiples that was unthinkable just 12-18 months ago, and partly because there were none present to defend the industry's honour. Lower returns and rising leverage was of concern but it was the erosion of downsid

IFR:This is what I would like to begin with. Everyone talks about liquidity but rarely do we touch upon where all this liquidity is coming from, and I thought I would put you on the spot for that one, Euan. Euan Hamilton (Royal Bank of Scotland): Thank you! All of us would agree how crazy the multiples are. But we always find an excuse why our deal is not the crazy one. In terms of where the liquidity is coming from - the hedge fund. It sits out there as a name, hedge fund, and there are so many