Private Equity in Emerging Markets

Catalog description

This course investigates the private equity industry in emerging markets. The goal of the course is to give students a realistic understanding of the roles, responsibilities and analytical skills required of market practitioners, as well as the tensions that arise between various stakeholders, including government officials, investors, entrepreneurs and the press. The underlying premise is that the basic rules for private equity in those countries are similar to the rules in more industrialized countries, but market participants face a broader range of issues in areas such as valuations, governance, legal structures, contract enforcement and regulatory transparency. To provide students with a practical grasp of the issues, classes will be a mix of lectures, expert guest speakers and business cases. Cases will highlight the challenges and tasks at each stage of the investment cycle, such as structuring and launching a new fund, originating new deals, conducting due diligence, creating value, monitoring the performance of portfolio companies and exiting. Each class will focus on a specific topic, ranging from the basics of how and why private equity funds operate to complex issues such as fund governance and adding value to family firms.