The first wave of highly leveraged transactions (HLTs) also known as leveraged buyouts (LBOs) began in the late 1980s. Fewer transactions occurred in the 1990's after a number of companies in the first wave failed when the economy slowed down. More recently, the driving force behind levered...

This report takes a closer look at a crucial aspect of private equity (PE), namely the ability of PE firms to exit from their investments in a manner that crystallizes the value created over the period of their ownership. Specifically, it considers exits from private equity investments in Asia's...

We study the performance of nearly 1400 U.S. buyout and venture capital funds using a new dataset from Burgiss. We find better buyout fund performance than has previously been documented – performance consistently has exceeded that of public markets. Outperformance versus the S&P 500 averages...

We present evidence on the performance of nearly 1400 U.S. private equity (buyout and venture capital) funds using a new research-quality dataset from Burgiss, sourced from over 200 institutional investors. Using detailed cash-flow data, we compare buyout and venture capital returns to the...

Encouraged by the prospect of higher returns in the increasingly open emerging market economies, private equity investors have sought ways to profitably invest in these markets. Unfortunately it has been found that investing in emerging markets may not necessarily be as easy as it seems. We seek...

This paper analyzes the evolution of the private equity and venture capital industries in Brazil, using the U.S. market as an ideal type. The main challenges faced by this sector in Brazil are the volatility of the economy, a lack of seed capital, and the illiquidity of capital markets, which...

Understanding value creation at the transaction level is at the heart of explaining private equity (PE) returns. Taking advantage of a proprietary sample of 2,029 international buyout deals executed between 1984 and 2013 we provide detailed evidence on financial, market and operational value...