This study examines the determinants of private equity returns using a newly constructed worldwide database of 7,500 investments made over forty years.
Professor of Finance, EDHEC Business School
University of Amsterdam Business School and Tinbergen Institute
HEC Paris
The median investment IRR (PME) is 21% (1.3), gross of fees. One in ten investments goes bankrupt, whereas one in four has an IRR above 50%. Only one in eight investments is held for less than two years, but such investments have the highest returns. The scale of private equity firms is a significant driver of returns: investments held at times of a high number of simultaneous investments underperform substantially. The median IRR is 36% in the lowest scale decile and 16% in the highest. Results survive robustness tests. Diseconomies of scale are linked to firm structure: independent firms, less hierarchical firms, and those with managers of similar professional backgrounds exhibit smaller diseconomies of scale.
Type: | Working paper |
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Date: | le 31/01/2011 |
Research Cluster : | Finance |