Private Equity Council issues statement on new PE research conducted by Prof. Josh Lerner for the World Economic Forum
WASHINGTON, DC, January 25, 2008 –
The Private Equity Council today issued the ffollowing statement on new research on private equity conducted for the World Economic Forum by a team of researchers led by Josh Lerner, the Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking at Harvard Business School. The studies are available on the WEF web site at www.weforum.org. The statement should be attributed to Douglas Lowenstein, president of the Private Equity Council.
“The WEF studies represent a significant new contribution to the body of research on private equity investment. Professor Lerner, his team and the WEF are to be congratulated for their effort.
“The WEF studies further validate what we’ve been saying all along: private equity firms invest for the long term and build stronger, more innovative, and more competitive companies.
“The studies affirm that private equity-owned companies pursue more economically important innovations than companies that are not owned by PE investors.
“The studies directly contradict critics’ assertions that PE owners starve investment and R&D. In fact, the researchers said PE firms maintain a comparable level of cutting edge research at the companies they acquire.
“The studies demonstrate that PE firms are job savers and job growers. Firms acquired by PE on average are losing jobs at a faster clip than their peers when purchased — but over time, as the business is stabilized and refocused by PE investors, the employment trend rises to match the industry average at old facilities and exceeds average industry-wide job creation at new facilities.
“The WEF results in this regard are consistent with a study done for the Private Equity Council by Dr. Robert Shapiro, a former Under Secretary of Commerce. Shapiro found in a study of 26 large U.S. PE acquisitions that after a period of initial job losses, PE firms over time were net job growers.
“The WEF researchers put to bed the myth of “strip and flip.” They report that private equity owners are long-term investors of five years or more. “Quick flip” transactions of two years or less represented less than 12 percent of all the transactions studied.
“The study confirms that private equity investors are active owners that take a direct role in managing the companies they acquire long after the acquisition closes.”
About The Private Equity Council
The Private Equity Council, based in Washington DC, is an advocacy, communications and research organization that develops, analyzes and distributes information about the domestic and international private equity industry. Its members are: Apax Partners; Apollo Global Management LLC; Bain Capital; The Blackstone Group; The Carlyle Group; Hellman & Friedman LLC; Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.; Providence Equity Partners; Silver Lake Partners; THL Partners and TPG Capital (formerly Texas Pacific Group).
