Vintage Wine Turns Sour for Financiers
By Alex Daley and Doug Hornig, Casey Research
When the folks at a private equity firm gather at the holiday party refreshment table to talk about “vintage,” they aren’t commenting on the Château Pétrus.
The world of private equity financing doesn’t have high visibility, but it is big business behind the scenes. Unlike venture capital outfits – which provide startup money to very early-stage companies – those who play this game grab existing private companies, often through leveraged buyouts (LBOs). Each year’s investments are referred to as vintages, with some being more highly drinkable than others.
Now, some of the recent vintages look like they’ll turn out to be little more than vinegar.
Private equity investing has never been for the faint of heart. But investors continue to engage in it, because the payoff can be substantial. And for the first few years of the new millennium, it was a go-go place to be. With so much easy money sloshing around, the number of PE deals exploded, totaling over half a trillion dollars at the manic peak in ’07.
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