Exploiting a unique opportunity offered by the Italian private equity (PE) market, we examine the hitherto largely unexplored internal rate of return (IRR) of PE investments. Our database covers the entire universe of transactions sponsored by Italian PE investors in Italy up to 2007 and offers...

This study investigates the determinants of spread on structured finance issues backed by project finance (PF) loans. We find that credit rating is the most important variable in determining tranche spread at issue. We also document how factors that are important for pricing in the case of...

Our study shows that the ownership of private equity funds influences the investments' performances. Our analysis focuses on the universe of PE investments, made by Italian closed-end funds, from 1999 to 2005. We find that bank-owned funds are able to carry into effect a weaker monitoring of the...