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The IFF School of Private Equity

A complete one-stop guide to the entire spectrum of treasury products and their applications 

Course Highlights

  • Intensive, market focused programme – designed by private equity experts
  • Strictly limited places mean that you will receive maximum personal tuition and coaching throughout the programme
  • Highly practical “real-life” case studies form a major part of the course and will ensure you make the successful transition from theory to practice with excellent results
  • Five star residential format means that you can focus completely on learning and developing your skills without office distractions
  • Your course leader is a recognised industry expert – we are fortunate to secure Guy Fraser-Sampson as the course leader for this programme. His skills are in huge demand globally and we are proud to have his involvement in this programme
  • IFF’s reputation as the global leader in financial education – our clients travel from all over the world to attend our programmes for one main reason – we deliver the results we promise!

For details of the course trainer, please download the course brochure

Booking Information

Dates Prices Book This Course Discount
23 - 27 Feb 2009
£ 4999
Book the course now.
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13 - 17 Jul 2009
£ 4999
Book the course now.
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Course Programme

DAY 1

Private equity within a modern investment portfolio

  • Multi-asset class investing
  • Absolute returns
  • Correlation
  • Liquidity
  • The Yale Model

Changing views of risk

  • The risk premium
  • Markowitz and CAPM
  • Volatility
  • Uncertainty
  • Subjective risk
  • Material risk
  • Towards a new view of risk

What is private equity?

  • Distinguished from quoted equities
  • Buyout and venture
  • Secondaries
  • Mezzanine
  • Infrastructure
  • PIPEs

How does private equity work?

  • Investors (LPs) and Managers (GPs)
  • Limited partnerships
  • Quoted vehicles
  • VCTs
  • Primary and secondary markets
  • Fund economics: fees and carried interest

How do private equity returns work (1)?

  • Difference between compound and vintage year returns
  • Calculating an IRR
  • Understanding the J-curve
  • Cashflows
  • The investment / divestment cycle

How does private equity stack up?

  • Performance versus other asset classes
  • Correlation
  • Long-term versus short-term

 

DAY 2

How do private equity returns work (2)?

  • Distinguish between allocated, committed, drawn down and invested capital
  • Refer back to fund economics to consider the implications of these differences
  • Measurement techniques
  • Money multiples and their uses
  • Money weighted returns
  • Time weighted returns
  • Annual returns

What is buyout?

  • Sub-classes
  • Sector
  • Development capital
  • Debt
  • Earnings
  • Size
  • Control

Buyout returns in theory (1)

  • How buyouts create value
  • Earnings and how to define them
  • Earnings growth
  • Multiple increase in a perfect market
  • Multiple increase in an imperfect market
  • Leverage

Buyout returns in theory (2)

  • Recapitalisation
  • Timing
  • Modelling and analysis
  • Deal sourcing
  • Exclusivity status
  • Lead investor
  • Partner attribution
  • Quoted comparables
  • An ear to the ground

Buyout returns in practice

  • US and European returns compared and analysed
  • Impact of mega fund capital
  • Structural change in the market
  • Influence of quoted markets
  • Expectations for the future

 

DAY 3

Class discussion session

  • How do we think buyout funds make money?
  • What are the limitations on buyout returns?
  • How might these play out in the future?
  • What may the impact of mega-funds mean for patterns of equity ownership?
  • Is the funding of the equity cycle infinitely renewable?

What is venture capital (1)?

  • Applications, not inventions
  • How has sector coverage changed?
  • Life science
  • IT
  • Telecoms
  • Stagev

What is venture capital (2)?

  • The US model
  • Home run mentality
  • Value add
  • The traditional European approach
  • The US model comes to Europe

Venture returns in theory

  • Money multiples
  • Valuations
  • Cost and value
  • IRRs and multiples
  • Going in equity
  • GIE as % of fund holding
  • The impact of home runs
  • Some thoughts on European returns

Venture returns in practice

  • US out-performance versus Europe
  • Just what happened in the mid-nineties?
  • Multiples drive IRRs
  • The Golden Circle
  • Market conditions
  • Europe – why the figures don’t tell the whole story
  • Returns by fund size
  • Returns by stage
  • Expectations for future returns

 

DAY 4

The Partnership fundraising process

  • The fund cycle
  • The investment cycle
  • The fund and portfolio models
  • Pre-marketing
  • The offering memorandum
  • The presentation
  • The offering meeting
  • LP process
  • Commitments

The LP process (1)

  • Decision making in general
  • Managing dealflow
  • Managing expectations
  • Need for process
  • Preliminary review
  • Dealing with serious candidates
  • Due diligence
  • Negotiating terms

Fund terms

  • Duration
  • Structure
  • Management fees
  • Start-up fees – what is included
  • Carry – deal by deal, full payback, etc.
  • Recycling
  • Key man
  • No fault divorce
  • Limitations on transfer

The LP process (2)

  • Planning a fund programme
  • Geography
  • Sector
  • Time
  • Legal / practical limitations
  • Allocated capital
  • Committed capital
  • Drawndown capital
  • Capital cycles and cashflow planning
  • What to do with uninvested capital

The LP process (3)

  • Monitoring
  • Analysis
  • Advisory boards
  • Secondaries
  • Co-investment
  • Anticipating the next fundraising

 

DAY 5

The venture funding process (1)

  • Deciding on the preferred funding method
  • Angels
  • Professional venture capital firms: stage sector, value add
  • What is the story?
  • Being realistic about the capital structure
  • What v/c firms will be looking for
  • Covenants
  • Liquidation preferences
  • Negative control

The Other Alternative Assets – Real Estate, Commodities and Private equity

  • The commodity indexes and enhanced indexing
  • Direct investments - private equity and real estate
  • Real estate investment funds and reits
  • Hedged and active commodities exposure

The venture funding process (2)

  • Being realistic about executive staffing
  • The presentation
  • The pitch
  • Negotiating terms
  • Working together
  • The traditional venture model– can the v/c perform?
  • Exit discussions
  • What to do when it goes wrong

The secondary market

  • How it works
  • Size
  • Reasons for use
  • Return expectations

The private equity “debate” (1)

  • What exactly are the issues?
  • Socio-economic considerations
  • Transparency
  • Responsibility
  • The future?
  • Club deals and anti-competitive tendencies:
    • (a) company level
    • (b) fund level

The case for private equity (2)

  • Regulation
  • Publicity
  • Short-term versus long-term considerations
  • Creation of companies and jobs
  • Venture capital’s economic impact
  • Individual enrichment:
    • (a) Practitioners
    • (b) entrepreneurs
  • Individual enrichment and responsibility: directors
  • A force for free markets – breaking down old
  • cultural attitudes