Inside Private Equity Quotes

“Married with three boys, John Porter was an enigma to us at first. Always courteous, open and good fun, he had a laid-back style that initially had me worrying about just how serious and committed he really was.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“Mixing a profitable small-store format business with a loss-making big box format retailer was a dumb idea. Each format needed different store management, different merchandising skills, different customers.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“In the immediate period ahead, there will continue to be a strong presence of the offshore PE group in the larger end of the Australian PE markets.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“the CVC group has battled with its Channel 9 media purchase from day one. Having paid a double digit EBITDA purchase price this debt laden deal has delivered a huge equity loss for CVC of approximately $2 billion.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“The likes of UBS, CSFB, JPM, Merrills, Deutsche, Goldman Sachs and Rothschilds had all rapidly developed their PE practices dedicated to servicing the Australian PE markets. And so it was only a question of time before the major offshore PE houses would be encouraged to our shores. Blackstone, KKR, CVC, TPG, Carlyle were some of the ‘big guns’ seeking targets in antipodean hunting grounds.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“Between 2004 and 2008, most of the established PE firms from offshore discovered Australia.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“In 2000 there may have been about $1 billion in funds available from domestic PE shops, including CHAMP’s pioneering CHAMP I Buyout Fund of $500 million. Since then, approximately $22 billion has been raised by Australian PE funds (see Table 21).”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“Incubators’ became another approach. They were state government initiatives to create mini-Silicon Valleys, to bring developing high-technology companies and resources together in order to provide the wherewithal—resources, knowledge, skills and so on—needed to facilitate collective growth of the tenant firms. In return for rent and a small amount of equity, the incubators provide sponsorship and promotion, which might otherwise be unavailable to small firms.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“Co-operative Research Centres may prove to be a growing source of products and ideas for the venture capital market in future years.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“As a direct result, the next decade witnessed the complete withdrawal of ANZ, NAB and Westpac from their modest participation as VC and PE managers.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“PE investors don’t like those indirect and opaque incentive structures.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“His ability to see and understand the other side in any dispute before rushing to improve his own position was to be a lasting lesson for me.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“The buy-out business depended on leverage, on the availability of bank debt, so with the collapse of banks and withdrawal of credit around the world, did this spell the end of the buy-out business model?”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“Harbour-Vest’s demonstration of faith was key: faith in the Australian economy, in the thesis that buy-outs would indeed work well in Australia, and in the integrity and quality of the PE managers and the supporting infrastructure of lawyers, accountants, investment banks and lenders, all necessary to a long-term viable and sustainable PE sector.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“Lesson 9 in Part One of this book—timing is more important than analysis—was developed from my experiences with early VC investing, and in particular our experience in the 1990s with the dotcom boom and bust. But it is a lesson that may apply just as aptly to fundraisings.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“The typical PE fund is expected to be fully invested by year five and thereafter the management fees decline rapidly. So by year four of the fund’s life the GP will be wanting to give serious thought to the prospects for raising another fund.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“Like most PE funds, the CHAMP funds are structured as ten-year limited life funds, during which the GP has five years in which to invest the committed capital. And not until 75 per cent of the fund’s allocated capital has been invested (and/or committed to be invested) is the GP allowed to begin marketing another fund.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“Joe continues to be a one-man analytical powerhouse. Quick to indentify the key drivers in any industry, keen to focus on any uncontrollable risks such as government regulation, technology disruption or weather dependency,”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“The expression ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ is as popular as it is misguided. Most machinery needs care and maintenance, most needs periodic upgrades and most ultimately needs replacement with better technology. Most partnerships need the same ‘fixes’ over time.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“The investors needed to see that the younger team had sufficient hands-on experience and appropriate incentives,”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“A PE fund usually has a finite life of ten years, by which time investors expect fund investments to have been realised with all capital and profits returned in cash.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“whose involvement nowadays roams across all activities in a mentoring/coaching way) there are:”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“The modern general partnership (GP) needs a team of executives who can execute on the following seven core requirements: 1. RAINMAKING: A nose for new deals, and how to find them. 2. DEAL ANALYSIS AND EXECUTION: Ability to value a company and buy it for a sensible price on sensible terms, including arrangement of a sensible level of debt to support the acquisition structure. 3. IMPROVING THE PORTFOLIO COMPANY: Knowing how to help management make their companies great, not just good. 4. SELLING THE PORTFOLIO COMPANY: Recognising when it is time to sell and knowing how to achieve a fair price. 5. MANAGEMENT OF THE GP: Managing project teams, coaching junior staff and leading by example. 6. SERVICING THE INVESTORS: Not only with profits but also timely and accurate information and building strong relationships. 7. FUNDRAISING: Being able to present the case for why investors should entrust you to do a great job with their savings. Building this trust over many years is essential.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“Look for whether you can alter a price-taking business into a price-making one by differentiating service and/or customising product specification. If you can, you will probably be able to buy low and sell high.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“it makes sense to be ready should an attractive opportunity suddenly appear. This may manifest in the form of the IPO market window opening, or an unexpected approach by a major trade competitor.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“The importance of this point was underscored by the number of questions tabled by the bidders, namely 710 during due diligence. These were answered promptly and with a minimum intrusion on management time.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“A well-executed sale process begins on day one of your ownership. The online data room provided to us when we acquired SGI was constantly updated thereafter by the company’s very astute CFO.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“This experience might be compared with the success experienced by MFAs multiple acquisitions of brands and businesses that were quickly integrated within the existing IT and sales platform servicing existing customers of the larger parent company.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“They had different store management, different merchandising and different customers. They were, and always will be, different businesses requiring different things for success.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“look for the special angle you have or can bring to the deal. In the case of Austar there were two: bringing ‘clean hands’ to the vendor, enabling us to solve a problem with the junk bondholders’ position;”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained