Author Abstract
We survey 79 private equity investors with combined assets under management (AUM) of over $750 billion about their practices in firm valuation, capital structure, governance, and value creation. Investors rely primarily on internal rate of return (IRR) and multiples to evaluate investments. Their limited partners (LPs) focus more on absolute performance. Capital structure choice is based equally on optimal trade-off and market timing considerations. PE investors anticipate adding value to portfolio companies, with a greater focus on increasing growth than on reducing costs. We also explore how the actions that PE managers say they take group into specific firm strategies and how those strategies are related to firm founder characteristics.
Paper Information
- Full Working Paper Text
- Working Paper Publication Date: April 2015
- HBS Working Paper Number: 15-081
- Faculty Unit(s): Entrepreneurial Management; Finance