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Are novice private equity funds risk-takers? Evidence from a comparison with established funds

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  • Giot, Pierre
  • Hege, Ulrich
  • Schwienbacher, Armin

Abstract

This paper explores whether private equity firms that are new to the industry take excessive risks relative to funds from established firms. We use differences between the implicit incentives of managers of experienced and of novice funds as an identification strategy. We find that novice funds invest more slowly than experienced funds, contradicting the risk-taking hypothesis. However, the size of their investments, in value and as fraction of fund size, is larger; this could be consistent with risk-shifting by novice funds but also with alternative hypotheses. We find that the size difference increases over time and is absent from buyout investments. We also find that novice funds tend to underperform most dramatically for early large investments, and that the size of their investments increases after a first successful exit. These and other findings are in conflict with the excessive risk-taking hypothesis, but largely consistent with alternative explanations that emphasize differences in expertise.

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  • Giot, Pierre & Hege, Ulrich & Schwienbacher, Armin, 2014. "Are novice private equity funds risk-takers? Evidence from a comparison with established funds," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 55-71.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:27:y:2014:i:c:p:55-71
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2014.02.008
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    Cited by:

    1. Tereza Tykvová, 2018. "Venture capital and private equity financing: an overview of recent literature and an agenda for future research," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 88(3), pages 325-362, May.
    2. Hege, Ulrich & Lovo, Stefano & Slovin, Myron B. & Sushka, Marie E., 2018. "Divisional buyouts by private equity and the market for divested assets," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 21-37.
    3. Hammer, Benjamin & Knauer, Alexander & Pflücke, Magnus & Schwetzler, Bernhard, 2017. "Inorganic growth strategies and the evolution of the private equity business model," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 31-63.
    4. Robert Loos & Bernhard Schwetzler, 2017. "Fueling the buyout machine: fundraising in private equity," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 31(4), pages 397-443, November.
    5. Sannajust, Aurélie & Groh, Alexander Peter, 2020. "There's no need to be a pioneer in emerging private equity markets," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    6. Fang, Dawei, 2019. "Dry powder and short fuses: Private equity funds in emerging markets," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 48-71.
    7. Buchner, Axel & Mohamed, Abdulkadir & Schwienbacher, Armin, 2020. "Herd behaviour in buyout investments," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    8. Aurélie Sannajust & Alexander Peter Groh, 2020. "There's no need to be a pioneer in emerging private equity markets," Post-Print hal-03511382, HAL.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Private equity funds; Venture capital; Buyouts; Learning; Reputation; Risk-taking;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G24 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Investment Banking; Venture Capital; Brokerage
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance

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