Private Equity Investing
This course will concern itself with the central issues related to private equity investing. Topics to be covered include the following: the structure and governance of pe funds; valuation, pricing and structuring of investments (particularly leveraged buyouts and other transactions involving multitiered capital structures); the due diligence process; conceptual issues (such as option theory, agency costs and asymmetric information) which influence activity in this domain; and private equity as a distinct asset class. Students will learn some of the skills and tools used in the private equity arena. The aspiration is to have the course be multidisciplinary (drawing upon the fields of finance, economics, law, organizations and strategy) and practical (how are deals done? how do capital and ideas come together in this milieu? who are the players?).