Private Equity Demystified

ICAEW’s publication on private equity’s role in global business investment and growth

Private equity is risk capital provided outside the public capital markets. It is a form of investment in businesses of all sizes and at all stages of growth and development. Private equity has an increasingly international focus.

ICAEW's publication Private Equity Demystified is an objective explanatory guide, currently in its 3^rd edition. Its authors, John Gilligan and Professor Mike Wright, blend practitioner experience with findings from academic research studies from around the world. Its principal purpose is to inform. It is referred to by policymakers, regulators, investors, advisers and businesses and is on the reading lists of top business schools.

The third edition draws on 203 research papers, studies and books about trends through three decades. It highlights the extraordinary rise of private equity as a form of investment in businesses of all sizes and at all stages of their growth and development.

The publication was co-ordinated by the ICAEW's Corporate Finance Faculty and the technical editor was Katerina Joannou, Capital Markets expert at ICAEW.

Publication

Upcoming fourth edition

This deals with risk capital provided for established firms outside the stock market, private equity, which has grown rapidly over the last three decades, yet is largely poorly understood. Although it has often been criticized in the public mind as being short termist and having adverse consequences for employment, in reality this is far from the case.

Written in a highly accessible style, the book takes the reader through what private equity means, the different factors involved, and issues concerning sourcing, checking out, valuing, and structuring deals. The various themes from the systematic academic evidence are highlighted in numerous summary vignettes placed alongside the text that discuss the practical aspects.

• This will be published by Oxford University Press, and available November/December 2020
• We are currently negotiating a licence to be made availabe online exclusively for ICAEW Corporate Finance Faculty members and subscribers

Further resources

• Private equity, business investment – and $274bn of questions...and answers (blog)
• Corporate Financier, December 2014/January 2015

Other resources

• Good practice guidelines in private equity and buyouts published by ICAEW's Corporate Finance Faculty

Launch film