This paper examines the way in which leveraged recapitalizations (re-issuance of debt) affect private equity portfolio companies. It therefore analyses this type of "transaction" from qualitative and quantitative perspectives. The qualitative perspective is studied with the help of interviews conducted with investors and with representatives of banks, private equity firms and portfolio companies. The quantitative studies are done by analysing a dataset of financial information from Nordic portfolio companies of private equity firms that have been subject to a recapitalization. The paper begins with a brief history of private equity and leveraged buyouts, and then explains the mechanics of leveraged recapitalizations. This introduction is followed by a theoretical explanation, empirical evidence and analysis. In the qualitative analysis we establish that the involved parties have different opinions on leveraged recapitalizations but they agree that under the right circumstances it can be an advantageous strategy. In the quantitative analysis we establish that it is difficult to draw ceteris paribus conclusions because factors other than the re-leverage can affect the key ratios that we have selected. We then conclude this paper by stating our findings; leveraged recapitalizations can be an effective tool for extracting additional capital or as an IRR enhancer given the right circumstances, but can have a devastating effect if thorough due diligence is not made. Furthermore, it can be an effective last-resort strategy if market conditions are not favourable and the investors demand returns on their investments.

Purpose – Leveraged exchange traded funds (ETFs) have become increasingly popular since their introduction in 2006. In recent years, options on leveraged ETFs have been promoted as a means of enhancing returns and reducing risk. The purpose of this paper is to examine the interchangeability of S&P 500 ETF options with leveraged S&P 500 ETF options and to what extent these options allow investors to manage their risk exposure. Design/methodology/approach – With increasing liquidity for these fund’s options, simple option strategies such as covered calls and protective puts can be implemented. This study derives call-call and put-put parity between options on the underlying index and the associated leveraged ETFs. The paper examines comparative measures of return and risk on the underlying indices, along with covered call and protective put positions. Findings – Using the formulations derived, this study shows options on non-leveraged ETFs or on the underlying index can be substituted for leveraged ETF options. Empirical results suggest substituting options on leveraged ETFs with options on the underlying index or index ETF give comparable results, but can differ as the realized leverage ratio over time differs from projected values. Originality/value – This study is the first to the authors’ knowledge that investigates option strategies on leveraged and inverse ETFs of equity indices. It is also the first to derive call-call and put-put parity relations between options on ETFs and related leveraged and inverse ETFs. The results contribute to securities issuance, investment strategies, and option parity relations.

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L’objet de cette recherche est d’identifier et analyser les facteurs déterminants de l’évolution du capital-investissement dans l’Europe de l’Est. De plus, notre travail compare les déterminants de LBO, respectivement de l’activité de VC dans les pays d’Europe de l’Est. Le modèle empirique comprend de nombreux déterminants déjà testés dans des études précédentes ainsi que de nouvelles variables telles que la productivité et l’indice de corruption, que nous considérons comme des facteurs importants pour expliquer l’évolution des investissements en capital-investissement en Europe de l’Est. Nos résultats confirment les hypothèses existantes concernant l’importance de certains déterminants sur l’évolution des investissements en capital-investissement en Europe de l’Est. Cependant, dans le contexte de la dernière crise, de nouveaux facteurs sont apparus comme importants pour le marché du capital investissement en Europe, tels que la productivité ou la corruption. La dernière partie de cette recherche montrent que les sociétés de capital-investissement en Europe de l’Est préfèrent les sorties à travers des fusions et acquisitions, suivies des introductions en bourse. De plus, nous validons une relation d'équilibre à long terme entre les investissements en capital-investissement, les introductions en bourse et les fusions et acquisitions. Le test de causalité de Granger montre l'existence d'une causalité unidirectionnelle du nombre de fusions et acquisitions par rapport au volume des investissements en capital-investissement en Europe de l'Est. / The purpose of this research is to identify and analyze the determinants of the evolution of private equity in Eastern Europe. Additionally, this paper compares the determinants of leveraged buyout activity, respectively venture capital activity in Eastern European countries. The empirical model of the first two sections includes many of the determinants already tested in previous studies and also new variables such as productivity and corruption index which we consider important factors in explaining the evolution of private equity investments in Europe. Our results confirm existing hypotheses regarding the importance of some determinants on the evolution of private equity investments in Europe. However, in the context of the last crisis new factors emerged as important for the private equity market in Europe such as productivity or corruption. The last section of this work tests the existence of a causal link between the evolution of private equity and the number of divestments of private equity funds in Eastern Europe during the financial crisis. Our results show that Eastern European private equity firms prefer M&A exits followed by IPOs. Furthermore, we validate a long-term equilibrium relationship between private equity investments, IPO and M&A. The Granger causality test shows the existence of a unidirectional causality of the number of M&A to the volume of private equity investments in Eastern Europe.

This cumulative dissertation aims to complement existing literature with insights on two topics gaining strong importance in the Private Equity Industry: 1) cross-border investments and 2) co-investments with portfolio firm management in times of uncertainty. Results in paper on cross-border investments suggest that the physical presence of a local office of PE firms can actually make a difference for foreign investments. With a local office, operating performance of PE firms is higher after the buyouts. Local offices are especially beneficial for performance the higher the perceived foreignness between PE firm and portfolio firm is. In addition, PE firms increase deal flow after a local office opening, do less syndicates and have higher deal volumes. Respective results imply it is worth in future research to differentiate between pure cross-border deals and deals operated through a local office. The forth paper sheds light on the positive relationship between management buyouts (MBOs) and economic policy uncertainty. Analyses indicate that access to information is a relevant channel for higher propensity of MBOs in uncertain times.:1 Introduction 1.1 Trends in private equity industry 1.2 Overview of essays 2 The Cross-Border Buyout Next Door 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Theoretical background 2.3 Data 2.4 Operating performance results 2.5 Insights from semi-structured interviews 2.6 Conclusion 3 Opening a Local Office - PE Firms' Engine for International Expansion? 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Theoretical background 3.3 Sample and data 3.4 Determinants of office openings 3.5 Impact of local offices 3.6 Conclusion 3.A Appendices 4 Entrepreneurial Activity in Times of Uncertainty: The Case of Management Buyouts 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Literature review and hypotheses 4.3 Material and methods 4.4 Results and discussion 4.5 Conclusions 4.A Appendices References

This study examines the use of leveraged exchange traded funds (LETFs) within a portfolio insurance framework to reduce exposure to downside risk. Investors have learned the importance of mitigating this risk having experienced two “once in a century” events in the last 20 years with the tech crash in the early 2000s and the financial crisis in 2008. Current portfolio insurance strategies are either option based (Leland & Rubinstein, 1976) or constant proportional portfolio insurance (CPPI), (Black & Jones, 1987). The cost of option based strategies can be quite high while a CPPI strategy requires constant rebalancing. This study combines the advantages of each by using LETFs to attain the leverage options provide, while at the same time allowing a greater percentage of the portfolio to be invested in bonds since a position in LETFs relative to a typical market index magnifies equity exposure. Thus, where a standard CPPI strategy may require 50% of the portfolio to be invested in equities, using a 3x LETF only requires approximately 16.7%. Results suggest the use of LETFs within a portfolio insurance framework result in better returns, higher Sharpe, Sortino, Omega, and cumulative prospect values while reducing Value at Risk (VaR) and Excess Shortfall below VaR. This twist on the use of LETFs will be of interest to any investor concerned with mitigating downside risk while allowing participation in increasing markets.

Obey the Law and Do a Little Bit Extra? The paper provides evidence on how firms’ stakeholder orientation is associated with standard measures of corporate governance using a panel of 1778 US companies during the period of 1995-2006. We construct two binary indicators, one measuring stakeholder hostility and the other stakeholder friendliness using data from KLD ratings agency. Based on these indicators, we classify firms into four groups representing stakeholder hostile, neutral, friendly and ”friendly and hostile” firms. Our results show that both stakeholder friendly and hostile firms tend to have significantly lower insider ownership, smaller option grants, lower pay-performance sensitivities, larger boards, older executive officers and directors, lower institutional ownership and larger number of anti-takeover defenses than the firms in the neutral group. We also find that the probability of stakeholder hostile activity is positively related to the strength of corporate governance, but the effect is insignificant except in local and global community areas. A possible explanation is that in these areas stakeholders are protected mainly by ethics and social norms rather than by various regulations that is commonplace in labour, environment and customer related areas. These findings lend support for the idea that stakeholders are best protected by various regulations. Corporate Governance and Workplace Safety. This paper examines how the weakening in corporate governance affects workplace safety. We use anti-takeover laws in the US in the 1980s as a source of variation in corporate governance. Our measures of workplace safety are the number of violations of OSHA workplace safety regulation, penalties paid for these violations, the number of accidents and employees’ complaints about their workplace safety. We find that firms affected by the regulation presented significantly more workplace safety violations and penalties than otherwise similar firms that were not affected by the regulation. Accidents and complaints tend to decrease as a result of the anti-takeover regulation, but the results are not entirely robust. We also document that the increase in workplace safety violations was significantly smaller in unionized firms. This suggests that unions can play an important role in curbing managerial discretion. How Responsible is Private Equity? The financial success of leveraged buyout targets (LBOs) is frequently associated with deteriorating conditions for other stakeholders, such as workers, customers, suppliers, tax-payers and society as a whole. We obtain a comprehensive set of stakeholder ratings for a sample of 373 LBOs and examine the pre-and post-LBO performance of these ratings. LBO targets are characterized by weak stakeholder relations across a number of measures compared to their peers, in terms of corporate governance, transparency, employee relations and community relations. Controlling for this selection, we do not find systematic evidence in favor of the idea that private equity funds gain at the expense of other stakeholders. Private equity ownership alters targets in the direction of higher pay, improved work-life benefits, increased charitable giving, and decreased concerns related to retirement benefits, adverse economic impact, tax disputes, unfair marketing practices and antitrust problems. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2010; Sammanfattning jämte 3 uppsatser.

This article focuses on the study of a corporate rather, that is a controversial topic: the acquisitions of shares counting on leveraged buyouts. t his has led to increased specialized investment funds, as in Peru, they use these operations to develop their activities. However, the current situation has not been overlooked by the regulation, since this has imposed certain restrictions. After analyzing the phenomenon of leveraged buyouts, the article makes an analysis of the actual regulation to finally provide a possible alternative regulation. / El presente artículo se centra en el estudio de un tema societariobastante controvertido: las operaciones de adquisición de acciones contandocompras apalancadas. este ha dado lugar al aumento de fondos de inversiónespecializados que, como en el Perú, se valen de estas operaciones paradesarrollar sus actividades. sin embargo, todo esto no ha sido pasado poralto por la regulación, pues esta le ha impuesto ciertas restricciones. es asíque luego de analizar el fenómeno de las compras apalancadas, el artículohace un análisis de su regulación para finalmente brindar una posible formade regulación alternativa.

本文探討槓桿型/反向型ETF之追蹤誤差是否會因為追縱標的屬於不同產業而有差異。為此先將46檔具有顯著追蹤誤差之槓桿型/反向型ETF樣本分為七類不同的產業，並設定產業作虛擬變數放入多元迴歸模型中，結果為當追蹤指數屬於建築業、零售業及服務業之槓桿型/反向型ETF傾向得到較大的追蹤誤差，而追蹤指數屬於礦產業、製造業、水電業及金融業者，其追蹤誤差較小。追蹤誤差大之產業，其指數波動度也較大，推測指數波動度可能是造成特定產業追蹤績效不佳的原因。另外在本研究中也發現，追蹤礦產業、建築業及製造業指數之槓桿型/反向型ETF，其槓桿型績效優於反向型績效；而追蹤水電業、零售業、金融業及服務業指數之槓桿型/反向型ETF則是反向型績效優於槓桿型績效。其原因推測與ETF存在年限、ETF發行公司和指數成分股個數有關。 / This paper discusses whether the tracking error of leveraged/inverse ETF varies by industry of underlying indexes. We take 46 leveraged/inverse ETFs with significant tracking error into the samples, divide them into 7 different industries and set those industries as dummy variables in multiple regression models. The outcome shows that the tracking error tends to be larger if the underlying index of leveraged/inverse ETF belongs to construction, retails or service industries; otherwise, the tracking error tends to be smaller if it tracks the index from mining, manufacturing, utility or finance industries. The larger tracking errors may result from more volatile indexes of those industries. Besides, we also find that leveraged ETFs outperform the inverse ones if the index belongs to mining, construction or manufacturing industry; on the other hand, inverse ETFs outperform leveraged ones when the index comes from utility, retails, finance or service industry. The possible reasons may be the different characteristics of ETFs, such as the length of ETF’s existence, ETF’s issuer and the number of constituents in underlying index.

This thesis focuses on specification of key characteristics and principles of private equity and includes specification of both the local market and the international market trends. Furthermore this paper defines institutional framework for support of private equity in the Czech Republic and specifies the history and operations of leveraged buyouts including description of leverage effect and its illustration. The leverage effect arises when combination of debt and equity is used for financing. Private equity transactions are characterized by uniqueness and this paper describes the investment process starting from the identification of investment opportunity through monitoring to exit. Analysis and definition of key characteristics of target companies is also included.