Autres Ardian, Bain & Company, Bridgepoint, Groupe Chevrillon, Latham & Watkins, Messier Maris & Associés, Natixis Partners, Omnes Capital, Weil Gotshal & Manges

Fondateurs

Frédéric Pescatori, Président de l'observatoire, Associé, Bridgepoint

Associé et responsable des activités d'investissement de Bridgepoint à Paris. Il est membre du Conseil d'Administration du groupe, du Comité Exécutif et du Comité d'Investissement. Il fait  partie des équipes spécialisées dans les secteurs des biens de consommation et de la distribution, ainsi que des services aux entreprises. Il a rejoint Bridgepoint en 2009.
         

Oliver Gottschalg, Professeur titulaire à HEC, Cofondateur de l'observatoire.

Professeur associé de stratégie et de politique d’entreprise à HEC Paris. Il est aussi directeur académique du TRIUM Global Executive MBA, directeur du track « Entrepreneurship » pour le programme MBA HEC et Directeur de HEC Buyout Research Program. Il donne des cours de stratégie, d’entrepreneuriat, de conception de business plans et de gestion des buyouts. Ses recherches actuelles se concentrent sur la logique stratégique et les déterminants de la performance des investissements en private equity.
         

Cyrille Chevrillon, Président d'honneur, Cofondateur de l'observatoire.

Diplômé d’HEC en 1976, Cyrille Chevrillon a débuté sa carrière chez J.P. Morgan à New York, puis à Paris. Fondateur de Chevrillon & Associés en 1992, tout en dirigeant des groupes de Private Equity de premier plan au Royaume-Uni (Président Directeur Général de Salomon Brothers SA, Directeur Général de Candover Partners Limites en 2002), Cyrille Chevrillon est l’un des leaders du capital-investissement en France. Il est également Professeur affilié à HEC.

HEC Private Equity Value Creation All of Fame

What are the greatest private equity funds of all time? PEI presents the HEC Private Equity Value Creation Hall of Fame and reveals its first entrant

Can you name the most successful private equity fund ever? There are probably a number of GPs reading this who would say ‘yes’ and point to a fund in their own firm’s history which, by at least one metric, is a contender.

But metrics in isolation can be misleading or irrelevant. A fund that produces 3x invested capital and a 30 percent IRR is a stellar performer, but of limited value to a large investor if it is only $150 million in size or if it took huge risks to make those returns.

Oliver Gottschalg, associate professor of strategy at HEC Paris and co-founder of its private equity observatory research centre, discussed this with a client earlier this year.

In Gottschalg’s own words: “I met with Bart Elema, CFO of my client Waterland Private Equity, and he mentioned to me that based on his research in industry specific databases, there were only very few PE funds of a certain size that generated more than 3x net.”

“We had a conversation about what aspects make a PE fund really great, as the simple money multiple is clearly too simplistic: no consideration of risk, time value of money, opportunity costs etc.

“During the conversation I realised that it is not obvious from the outside to spot the ‘best of the best’ of all PE funds of all times… and that this information would be useful for investors and for the asset asset class and a governance structure can be – countering some of the widespread criticism that private equity only levers up equity and rides macro trends.

“It would also give investors some idea about which GPs had been at the top of this ‘game’ over the past 20 years. On the way back from the meeting, I started to sketch out the set of complementary hurdles that a PE fund would have to surpass to deserve the label of being among ‘the best of the best’ at value creation in PE.”

Gottschalg settled on three key hurdles, and the idea of the ‘HEC Private Equity Value Creation Hall of Fame’  was born. To qualify for the Hall of Fame, funds must have generated:

• at least $2 billion in cash-on-cash alpha gain;
• “PERACS Alpha”* of at least 15 percent return;
•  at least 2x cash-on-cash multiple.

Gottschalg and his team set about analysing data on realised returns for 2,500 funds and, as Elema predicted, rapidly whittled them down to a handful of exceptional funds.

Here we launch the HEC Private Equity Value Creation Hall of Fame, with its first inductee: Hellman & Friedman Capital Partners IV. Watch out for further admissions in the coming months.