Private Equity as an Asset Class

Guy Fraser-Sampson

Aug 2009 · John Wiley & Sons

About this ebook

Guy Fraser-Sampson draws upon twenty years' private equity experience to provide a practical guide to mastering the intricacies of this highly specialist asset class. Aimed equally at investors, professionals and business school students, it starts with such fundamental questions as "what is private equity?" and progresses to detailed analysis of venture and buyout returns. It also unveils a totally new concept which looks set to revolutionise thinking in the industry: Total Return investing.

Often unfairly reviled, and frequently misunderstood, private equity differs from all other asset classes in various important respects, not least in the nature and timing of its returns, which require a whole new approach for those reared on more traditional investments such as bonds and shares. This book shows how a good grasp of the basic structure of private equity vehicles and returns (including the dreaded J-curve) can lead to full understanding of the techniques needed to measure and analyse performance.

Key points include:

• A glossary of private equity terms
• Venture funds and transactions
• Buyout funds and transactions
• Understanding private equity returns
• Analysis of historic returns
• How to plan a fund investment programme
• How to conduct effective due diligence
• Total Return investing

Ratings and reviews

Good book to understand the difference between VC and PE, US and European VC & PE, and to understand the return patterns to be expected from the investor's viewpoint. On the other hand, the book written in beg. 2007, there are some expectations towards the asset class that proved unrealistic during the recent downturn.

About the author

GUY FRASER-SAMPSON has twenty years’ experience of the private equity industry, most notably having set up and run for several years the European operations of Horsley Bridge. As a partner in the firm, and Managing Director of Horsley Bridge International, he had a perhaps unique opportunity to interact simultaneously with private equity managers in both Europe and the US, including famous “golden circle” venture firms based predominantly in California. He previously lived and worked in the Middle East as Investment Controller with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (“ADIA”).

He has extensive experience of the evaluation of private equity managers, including having personally designed and developed a computer model for the evaluation of buyout performance, but is equally recognised as an authority on venture capital. In addition to his work with fund managers (“GPs”), he has also been involved in direct, secondary and mezzanine transactions over the years, as well as planning and monitoring private equity programmes from the investor (“LP”) perspective.

Guy is a well-known figure on the conference circuit both as a speaker and, increasingly, as a provider of keynote addresses. He has written for private equity publications for many years, and is perhaps best known for his regular monthly column in Real Deals. In addition to various professional qualifications, he has an LLB with honours from King’s College London and an MBA majoring in finance from Warwick Business School.

In recent years, Guy has also become acknowledged as an expert on pension fund investment and asset allocation generally, and he has written for all of Europe’s English language pension publications. His first book, Multi Asset Class Investment Strategy, published as part of the Wiley Finance series last year to what Global Pensions described as “rave reviews from the UK pension industry” has been hailed as a major contribution to modern portfolio theory. It went into the Amazon “Hot 100” six weeks after its launch, and has been featured in newspapers and financial periodicals around the world.