Beyond the Jcurve

List of Boxes.
Acknowledgements.
Disclaimer.

PART I: PRIVATE EQUITY ENVIRONMENT.
1. Introduction.
1.1 Routes into private equity.
1.2 The limited partner's viewpoint.
1.3 The challenge of venture capital fund valuation.
1.4 Hard figures or gut instinct?
1.5 Managing with fuzzy figures.
1.6 Making the grades.
1.7 Outline.

2. Private Equity Market.
2.1 Funds as intermediaries.
2.2 The problem of predicting success.
2.3 Broad segmentation of investment universe.
2.4 Private equity market dynamics.
2.5 Conclusion.

3. Private Equity Fund Structure.
3.1 Key features.
3.2 Conflicts of interest.
3.3 Finding the balance.

4. Buyout and Venture Capital Fund Differences.
4.1 Differences between venture capital and buyouts.

5. Funds-of-funds.
5.1 Structure.
5.2 Value added.
5.3 Costs.
5.4 Private equity investment programme.
Appendix: 5A.1 Payout schedules.

PART II: INVESTMENT PROCESS.
6. Investment Process.
6.1 Key performance drivers.
6.2 Process description.
6.3 Risk management.
6.4 Tackling uncertainty.

7 Risk Framework.
7.1 Market value.
7.2 Market or credit risk?
7.3 Conclusion.

8. Portfolio Design.
8.1 Portfolio design framework.
8.2 Portfolio construction techniques.
8.3 Risk-return management approaches.

9. Case Study.
9.1 Looking for the optimal programme size.
9.2 Overcoming entry barriers: long-term strategies.

10. The Management of Liquidity.
10.1 Liquidity management problem.
10.2 Liquidity management approaches.
10.3 Investment strategies for undrawn capital.
10.4 Cash flow projections.
10.5 Conclusion.

PART III: DESIGN TOOLS.
11. Established Approaches to Fund Valuation.
11.1 Bottom-up approach to private equity fund valuation.
11.2 Inconsistency of valuations.
11.3 NAVs do not tell the full picture.
11.4 Portfolio companies cannot be valued in isolation.
11.5 Conclusion.

12. Benchmarking.
12.1 Specific issues.
12.2 Individual funds.
12.3 Portfolio of funds.

13. A Prototype Internal Grading System.
13.1 Grading of private equity funds.
13.2 The NAV is not enough.
13.3 Existing approaches.
13.4 New approach to internal fund-grading system.
13.5 Summary—NAV- and grading-based valuation.
13.6 Discussion.
13.7 Conclusion.
Appendix 13A.

14. Fund Manager Selection Process.
14.1 Relevance of fund manager selection.
14.2 Why due diligence?
14.3 The due diligence process.
14.4 Fund manager selection process.
14.5 Decision and commitment.

15. Qualitative Fund Scoring.
15.1 Scoring approach.
15.2 Scoring dimensions.

16. Grading-based Economic Model.
16.1 Approach.
16.2 Internal age adjustment.
16.3 Private equity fund IRR projections.
16.4 Expected portfolio returns.
16.5 Discussion.
16.6 Conclusion.

17. Private Equity Fund Discount Rate.
17.1 The capital asset pricing model.
17.2 Private equity fund betas.
17.3 The alternatives to the capital asset pricing model.
17.4 Summary.

PART IV: MANAGEMENT TOOLS.
18. Monitoring.
18.1 Approach to monitoring.
18.2 The monitoring objectives.
18.3 Information gathering.
18.4 Evaluation.
18.5 Actions.

19. Case Study: Saving Your Investments—Approaches to Restructuring.
19.1 The valley of tears.
19.2 The report to the board.
19.3 The terms of the restructuring.
19.4 Epilogue.

20. Secondary Transactions.
20.1 Sellers and their motivations.
20.2 Buyers and their motivations.
20.3 Secondary market prices.
20.4 Transactional issues.
20.5 The fund manager perspective.

PART V: EMBRACING UNCERTAINTY.
21. Deviating from Top funds.
21.1 Strategic investments.
21.2 Policy objectives.

22. Real Options.
22.1 Real options in private equity.
22.2 Real option analysis.
22.3 An expanded strategy and decision framework.

23. Beyond the J-curve.
23.1 Some do it better.
23.2 Deadly sins.
23.3 Structure instead of “gut instinct”.
23.4 Patience is a virtue.
23.5 Turning water into wine.

Glossary.
Bibliography.
Abbreviations.
Index.