Is it Pi in the sky to hope the deals keep coming?

If you think the UK press coverage of the credit crunch is depressing, try the US, from where this column is written. The commentators over here are pretty much recommending that funeral director be a mandatory position on every board.

But there is some good news: the snap, crackle and pop of the credit markets is going to make a tasty breakfast for smart investors. David Giampaolo, the chief executive of private investment club Pi Capital, is one of the shrewdest operators around. He outlines a fairly difficult situation with trademark directness: "Investment activity is directly linked to the debt market. The banks are sitting on monster positions that they can't syndicate."

That's bad for deal flow, and the big private equity houses have had huge difficulty syndicating the loans they took out to fund purchases. But there is some good news: I understand that at least one private equity firm is doing the rounds and offering to ease the banks' credit fears by taking some of their senior debt at a massive discount in the region of 15 per cent. This will look like bold and brilliant deal making if the storm is weathered.

Mr Giampaolo expects that the deal flow will slow dramatically in the UK, but not stop. One of the deals coming up for Pi members, I understand, is a co-investment opportunity in DV4, the latest fund offered by Delancey, a property investment outfit run by sector specialist Jamie Ritblat, They backed DV3 and that, according to Pi's data, yielded "a blended internal rate of return, net of management fees, of 89 per cent per annum on all investments sold".

Well, that was in the halcyon days before sub-prime paranoia and the big crunch. But things may well be looking up for Mr Ritblat's vehicle before the new fund closes at the end of September. I understand it is looking to raise up to [pound]1.1bn.

Soccer on Wall Street

The Americans have little to fear from Rupert Murdoch, other than a long-term change in their sporting diet. He already cross-brands content: lunch in a Greenwich Village restaurant revealed what I took for Sky Sports News to be Fox Sports Report. Now of course, he will be hands-off at The Wall Street Journal. Of course. But watch that paper's coverage of the business of British soccer (with US entrepreneurs already queuing up to buy). Mr Murdoch has the content, and while baseball and the others will stay, soccer will become much more of a staple.

Don't panic ...

The investment giant Fidelity has succession issues on both sides of the pond. In the UK, there's a dithering panic over the retirement of star fund manager Anthony Bolton at the end of the year. The truth is, he's an almost impossible act to follow. I've interviewed him twice, in some depth, and he is impressive. The new guy, Sanjeev Shah, is also said to be talented and he needs to be left alone to get on with the job - not that there's much chance of that. I reckon the knocking stories will start in February 2008, at the end of his first month.

In the States, meanwhile, hysteria surrounds the imminent departure of Edward Johnson. Known as "Ned", he is chief executive of FMR, a private entity that runs Fidelity Investments. He recently appointed a non-family member as president of FMR, making it less likely that his 45 year-old daughter, Abigail, will succeed him.

It is some years since I met Ned Johnson, but I was struck by his statesmanlike wisdom. If he makes management moves, it will be good for business and for investors. And if you don't like it - buy another manager's products. That's the market.

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