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Private Equity, Risk, and Government:
The Great Challenge
Josh LernerHarvard Business School
My argument
•The single greatest challenge that the PE industry faces is not…▫Market cycles.▫Overleveraged existing portfolio
companies.▫Access to debt.▫Limited partner nervousness.
•But rather overactive and ill-informed regulators.
My argument (2)
•Much of the proposed regulations appear profoundly ill-conceived.▫But it doesn’t seem to matter!
•The private equity must be more creative in responding!
Central issues
•In aftermath of economic crisis, many questions regarding regulation:▫How did regulators miss the antecedents to
the financial crisis?▫Does institutional approach to regulation
still make sense?▫Should regulators’ reach be expanded to all
institutions that pose systemic risk?
Widespread regulatory proposals•Broad array of regulatory changes
proposed in both U.S. and Europe, as well as various multilateral bodies:▫Precise shapes of legislation remain
uncertain. ▫But seems clear something will happen.
”[PE and hedge funds] are, in short, a major challenge to financial stability, and, unless regulated, they are likely to contribute to future crises.”
”The big private equity funds have proven to be a menace to healthy companies, to workers’ rights, and to the European Union’s Lisbon Agenda.”
”Leveraged buy-outs leave the company saddled with debt and interest payments, its workers are laid off, and its assets are sold. A once profitable and healthy company is milked for short-term profits, benefiting neither workers nor the real economy.”
Paul Nyrup Rasmussen, ”Taming the Private Equity Locusts,” Europe’s World, 2008.
Private equity is not exempt• EU Alternatives Investment Fund Managers
Directive:▫Long-running legislative process specifically
focused on private equity and hedge fund industry. http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/investment/
alternative_investments_en.htm/• Dodd bill may or may not contains provisions
directly addressing private equity, but begins process that is ultimate likely to ensnare PE:
http://www.financialstability.gov/docs/regs/FinalReport_web.pdf
EU Proposals
Source: Oliver Wyman [2009].
U.S. Proposals
Source: Oliver Wyman [2009].
US Proposals
“Would everyone check to make sure they have a lawyer? I seem to have ended up with two.”
Thinking about the justification
•Extremely complex problems pose policy challenges.
•To what extent are proposed private equity regulations justified?
•Little evidence one way or another, except anecdotes.
Differing perspectives
•Private equity leads to better operations:▫Industries with more private equity backing
should do better.•Or private equity as asset strippers?
•Private equity has “deep pockets”:▫PE-backed firms can do better in downturns.
•Private equity is over-leveraged and cyclic?▫PE-backed firms will do worse in downturns.
The WEF 2010 project
• Look at all buyout and private equity investments around world.
• Look at evolution of industries at national level:▫ Revenues, employment,
profitability, etc.▫ 26 countries and 20
industries.• Use data from OECD,
CapitalIQ, etc.
The sample•8,596 country-industry-year observations
between 1991 and 2007. ▫PE industry = at least one PE investment in
industry last 5 years▫Low (High) PE = fraction of total imputed PE
investments last 5 years divided by total production smaller (larger) than the median (conditional on non-zero level of PE investment).
▫Quartiles of PE investment / production•Look at deviations from average growth
rates at the industry-year level
Two key questions
•How does more PE investment in past five years impact industry performance in a given nation?
•Is the pattern the same in times of industry shocks, particularly downturns?▫E.g., if more PE investment in Swedish
steel industry than Finnish, does industry performance differ… In general? In downturns?
The basic story
Basic regression results
•Lagged PE-investment is associated with▫Higher growth in production (0.9 percentage points)▫Higher growth in value added (1.1 pp)▫Higher growth in total wage compensation (0.7 pp)▫Higher growth in number of employees, but mostly
for moderate levels of PE investment▫No significant effect on capital formation /
investment
•Also true when look at continental Europe alone.
Looking at cyclicality
•If anything, PE investment seems to dampen industry shocks
•Particularly consistent for employment and labor costs:▫5% increase in total labor costs in a given
year PE industry will experience 5.576% increase
▫5% decrease in the wage bill PE industry will experience a 2.394% decline
Worrying about causation
•Does PE cause or chase growth?▫Do PE funds choosing faster-growing or
less volatile industries?•Results unchanged if we only consider the
impact of PE investments made several years before on industry performance.
•Also go through when look at pension policy changes that drove PE fundraising.
•Seems to be PE driving growth, not vice versa.
Key conclusions
• Industries where active PE funds in the past 5 years grow more rapidly:▫True if measured using total production,
value added, or employment. ▫Few significant differences between
industries with low and high PE activity.•Activity in “PE industries” no more volatile
in the face of industry cycles, and sometimes less so.
Bernstein, Lerner, Sorensen and Stromberg [2010].
But it doesn’t seem to matter!
•Pressures to “do something.”•Lack of patience of policymakers with
details.•Hard to sympathize with private equity
titans.•Regulatory creep:
▫What starts as a modest regulatory regime almost invariably expands.
© Charles Barsotti. All Rights Reserved
You have logic, I have Reggie.
Some thoughts about carry tax
•A philosophical conundrum best left to taw professors!?
•Uncertainty as to who will bear tax and consequences:▫LPs: Fewer capital commitments?▫GPs: Even fewer incentives to “do the right
thing”? Metrick-Yasuda results.
Carry tax (2)
•Other questions:▫How much revenue will this collect really?
Difficulty of distinguishing between entrepreneurial and private equity contributions.
▫Distinguishing between venture capital and private equity funds: mission impossible? The weakness of holding period as a criteria.
▫ The desirability of enterprise taxation provisions?
A modest proposal
•PE must become much better at making a case for intelligent regulation.▫Widespread consensus that regulation that
is piece-meal and institution-specific just opens doors to “gaming” and arbitrage.
▫Moreover, private equity is likely to suffer disproportionately due its visibility.
•Should be encouraging independent voices to get the word out about these issues.
An example from Europe
•Proposed limitations on leverage in private equity deals:▫Why should PE funds be limited but not…
Sovereign wealth funds? Family offices? Companies themselves?
▫Likely to lead to huge disruption and poorer investments.
Another modest proposal: “Green shoots”• Governments world-wide
eager for growth and employment:▫ Numerous subsidy
schemes geared toward venture capital and new ventures. Australia Canada China India New Zealand United Kingdom United States …
Many recent examples
Private equity is likely to be part of the solution•Tool kit is very relevant:
▫Experience screening potential investments.▫Skill at overseeing firms making operating
improvements.▫Abilities to help firms access additional
financing. Track record of growth equity sector. More general evidence presented today.
•But industry has not been engaged in a proactive manner.
One of few exceptions
Wrapping up
•Regulation is real and only likely to intensify.
•Many of the concerns about PE seem misplaced…▫But it doesn’t seem to matter!
•The industry must be much more pro-active and creative in its response to these challenges.
Josh LernerRock Center for Entrepreneurship
Harvard Business SchoolBoston, MA 02163 USA
617-495-6065josh@hbs.edu
www.people.hbs.edu/jlerner
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