Secrets of Private Equity

Less Hand-Holding

The reason buyout funds are much more scalable than VC funds is that they invest in larger, more mature companies that typically need less hand-holding. In Metrick and Yasuda's sample, the median buyout fund began with $600 million in capital and invested an average $50 million in 10 to 12 different companies over its 10-year lifespan. By applying substantial leverage, buyout funds can acquire very large businesses -- on the order of Chrysler [acquired by Cerberus Capital Management], RJR Nabisco [acquired by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts] or Hilton Hotels [acquired by The Blackstone Group (BX Quote)].

Because buyout funds invest in businesses already equipped with sophisticated management structures, a buyout firm partner can oversee large investments without a proportionate increase in personnel. The job is not to supply needed management skills, but rather to make sure there is effective management in place, to oversee financial strategy and to help identify new efficiencies.

Buyout partners are usually grounded in finance and operations. And because buyout funds invest in larger, more sophisticated businesses, the typical buyout partner need monitor no more than two or three investments at a time.

The paucity of debt capital available to private equity firms has had relatively little effect on venture capitalists, Yasuda says, because the investments they make are seldom highly leveraged. Right now, venture capital firms are much more concerned about the long-term drought in the IPO market, which limits their ability to exit investments and makes them more dependent upon selling their businesses to larger companies.

The depressed IPO market dates from the post-2000 technology crash, which occurred just after VC firms had launched their largest funds ever. Those funds are now eight or nine years old, Yasuda notes, and will have to exit their investments over the next two years. Should they fail to do so successfully, a number of venture capital firms could themselves go out of business.

By contrast, illiquid credit markets do direct harm to buyout firms because few investments look attractive to them without a heavy dollop of leverage. The buyout firms raised record amounts of equity capital before the debt markets collapsed last summer, and many now find it difficult to put that money to work. The longer the credit markets remain in the doldrums, the higher the odds that some funds will have to return capital to their limited partners or else start investing in a greater number of small- or mid-sized companies requiring greater oversight.

Should that happen, the buyout business might become a lot less scalable, and the economic differences between buyout and venture capital funds may be somewhat harder to discern.

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