It’s a form of investment that is constantly grabbing the headlines and over recent times, really seems to have picked up the pace. However, if you were to question the Average Joe about the bread and butter of private equity investments, there’s every chance that you would be met with a blank look.
In short, this can be a complex type of financing and one that is difficult to get your head around. One element that is quite simple is the way in which investors approach it though. Whether it’s Marc Leder from Sun Capital, or a completely different investor from the other side of the world, most have very similar principles when it comes to private equity investments.
This is what we are going to be looking into today; as we scour through three of the key ingredients that form the typical private equity investment.
A good management team
One of the big misconceptions about private equity is that all groups are looking for an immediate change in management, as soon as their investment is finalized. Generally, this isn’t the case.
An investment team would much prefer to take control of a company which has an impressive management team. This is because the existing team already has inside-knowledge of the company; they know what is working well, and what is necessary for improvement.
If a company is forced to completely change the management, there are all sorts of issues to combat. They will firstly have to pay to replace the team, before then waiting for the new management to learn the internal processes of the company before they can implement any sort of change.
The potential for growth
This is related to both the market, and the company in question. One of the main requirements for a private equity company is the potential for high growth. Without this potential, their investment just isn’t going to work. Most approach companies with an exit strategy, which obviously will depend on a high rate of growth.
As such, they need to analyze firstly if the market has any potential for growth. From this point, they need to see if there is any space for this company to grow. In particularly small markets, this might not be possible, so a great deal of research will be placed into this area before the investment is made.
A good reputation
This is perhaps one of the more surprising elements of private equity, but one of the big things that investors look out for is a good reputation.
This is something that can only be harvested through time, which is one of the reasons why it’s regarded as being so important. A company can’t suddenly decide to buy an enhanced reputation; it’s something that can take years to build up.
As such, if there have been reputational problems in the past, this might mean that a private equity firm isn’t as interested in your company as you initially might have thought.