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Why Are Buyouts Levered? The Financial Structure of Private Equity Funds

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  • Axelson, Ulf

    (Stockholm School of Economics and SIFR)

  • Stromberg, Per

    (Stockholm School of Economics and SIFR)

  • Weisbach, Michael S.

    (Ohio State U)

Abstract

Private equity funds are important actors in the economy, yet there is little analysis explaining their financial structure. In our model the financial structure minimizes agency conflicts between fund managers and investors. Relative to financing each deal separately, raising a fund where the manager receives a fraction of aggregate excess returns reduces incentives to make bad investments. Efficiency is further improved by requiring funds to also use deal-by-deal debt financing, which becomes unavailable in states where internal discipline fails. Private equity investment becomes highly sensitive to economy-wide availability of credit and investments in bad states outperform investments in good states.

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Paper provided by Ohio State University, Charles A. Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics in its series Working Paper Series with number 2008-15.

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Date of creation: Sep 2008
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Handle: RePEc:ecl:ohidic:2008-15

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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Ulf Axelson & Sandeep Baliga, 2009. "Liquidity and Manipulation of Executive Compensation Schemes," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(10), pages 3907-3939, October.
  2. Joseph McCahery & Erik Vermeulen, 2012. "Private equity regulation: a comparative analysis," Journal of Management and Governance, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 197-233, May.
  3. Bottazzi, Laura & Da Rin, Marco & Hellmann, Thomas, 2009. "What is the role of legal systems in financial intermediation? Theory and evidence," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 559-598, October.
  4. Zwart, G.J. de & Frieser, B. & Dijk, D.J.C. van, 2007. "A Recommitment Strategy for Long Term Private Equity Fund Investors," Research Paper ERS-2007-097-F&A, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus Uni.
  5. Edmans, Alex, 2011. "Short-term termination without deterring long-term investment: A theory of debt and buyouts," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(1), pages 81-101, October.
  6. Axelson, Ulf & Strömberg, Per & Weisbach, Michael S., 2007. "Why are Buyouts Levered? The Financial Structure of Private Equity Funds," SIFR Research Report Series 49, Institute for Financial Research.
  7. David T. Robinson & Berk A. Sensoy, 2011. "Cyclicality, Performance Measurement, and Cash Flow Liquidity in Private Equity," NBER Working Papers 17428, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  8. Fedyk, Yuriy & Walden, Johan, 2007. "High-Speed Natural Selection in Financial Markets with Large State Spaces," SIFR Research Report Series 52, Institute for Financial Research.
  9. Demiroglu, Cem & James, Christopher M., 2010. "The role of private equity group reputation in LBO financing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 306-330, May.
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  11. Gregory, David, 2013. "Private equity and financial stability," Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, Bank of England, vol. 53(1), pages 38-47.
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  15. Lahr, Henry & Kaserer, Christoph, 2009. "Net asset value discounts in listed private equity funds," CEFS Working Paper Series 2009-12, Center for Entrepreneurial and Financial Studies (CEFS), Technische Universität München.

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