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Private Equity Briefcase

By Kelly Holman, IDD Magazine

January 23, 2008

Learning The Ropes

There’s no doubt that private equity executives are grappling with how to deal with the credit crunch, but the slowdown in the debt markets doesn’t mean that the industry isn’t looking to bolster its ranks.

At least that’s the consensus of the Private Equity Institute, which is aiming to offer education courses in private equity to finance professionals that have been laid off as a result of “job displacement” in the mortgage and credit banking area.

A New York organization that boasts members from small and medium-sized private investment firms, PEI is anticipating there will be increased demand for courses that can help experienced financial professionals transition into the private equity business.

“Clearly, there is a lot of assets in private equity firms and a lot of hiring going on at places like the Carlyle Group and Blackstone,” said Matthew Murray, a managing director of New York Private Equity, a two-year-old boutique located in downtown Manhattan.

PEI plans to offer courses at the University Club and through the Internet, charging $1,295 for each course. The courses will teach students how to structure and prepare private placement memorandums, value businesses and learn about leveraged buyout models. In addition, students will receive contact details for more than 1,000 limited partners and 10,000 general partners of private equity firms.

“It’s providing a way for a lot of people to get their first job in private equity,” Murray said, adding, “A lot of mid-level firms are growing up. Private equity is an asset class where they’re hiring.”

If the much-talked about focus on private equity portfolio companies comes to fruition this year some new hires could find themselves learning much more about business operations than they ever intended to do. Of course, that’s not exactly a bad spot to be in considering the state of the debt markets today. Some private equity staffers with operations experience, after all, could find themselves seated at the deal table when the leveraged buyout market rebounds.

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Kelly Holman

Kelly Holman is the assistant managing editor at Investment Dealers' Digest, where he writes about private equity and leveraged finance. Prior to joining IDD, he reported on leveraged buyout transactions, private equity fundraising activity, corporate auctions, the middle market and credit markets as a senior writer for The Deal. Before joining The Deal in 2000, Holman was a reporter for PRWeek magazine, where he reported on financial services PR and investor relation activities, as well as international PR developments. He also assisted with Haymarket Media Group's US launch of the public relations trade magazine. Previous to PRWeek, Holman wrote about private equity for Private Equity Week and Buyouts and served as a contributor to IDD in the late 1990's. A Colorado transplant, Holman has called New York home for more than a decade. He received his B.A. in Mass Communications from the University of Colorado at Denver..

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