Private Equity: Investing and Creating Value 2021 | Wharton Executive Education | 4 October 2021 | Virtual Event

Private equity is a critically important asset that investors cannot afford to exclude from their portfolios. With its potential for high returns that can outperform other asset classes — such as conventional stocks, bonds, and mutual funds — private equity offers a competitive edge to sophisticated investors.

Private Equity: Investing and Creating Value is designed for institutional investors as well as investment professionals aspiring to be better private equity managers. Renowned Wharton finance faculty teach up-to-the-minute information about private equity, including the impact of the pandemic on the sector. The program delivers the latest concepts investors need to know to confidently evaluate investment opportunities in the private equity space and to build optimal investment processes.

Highlights and Key Outcomes
In Private Equity: Investing and Creating Value, you will:
• Learn the various stages of investment, from deal origination through harvesting returns.
• Study tools that private equity firms use to structure and finance a deal, create value, and determine exit timing.
• Understand the key drivers in the private equity market and key differences between funds’ strategies.
• Analyze a deal from the different points of view of a private equity firm and a bank.
• Work in teams to review actual deal scenarios, both middle market, and megafund, and debate recommendations with faculty and peers for a new perspective.
• Gain experience in navigating the complex arena of global private equity and emerging markets.
• Discover how the PE sector has been impacted by the pandemic.

Private equity is riding a wave of money that has come it's way in the past decade, but it faces a growing list of challenges — some COVID-related and others that were developing before the pandemic. They include an overheated investment environment, difficulties conducting due diligence (especially in emerging markets), federal investigations into client fee disclosures, and (some might argue) a contraction in the business.

This innovative program provides an ideal combination of lectures by Wharton finance faculty and Wharton alumni who are finance leaders in the private equity industry. Participants will have an opportunity to focus on areas of individual interest, such as the limited partners' perspective, middle markets, distressed private equity, and private equity in emerging markets. There will also be time for case studies and group discussions.

For example, the effect of various government policy responses to COVID-19 and the increased need for operational improvement and turnaround management for keeping existing investments out of Chapter 11 will be addressed. The program will also explore the foundations of asset pricing and teach you how to forecast cash flows while accounting for country risk.

Participants will learn how to identify and manage special issues when investing or partnering with companies based in emerging or frontier markets. The effects of the current pandemic, including supply chain disruptions, lack of credit, and drastically lower consumer spending, will be examined so that participants become familiar with special considerations for due diligence and valuation.

Overall, participants will learn the landscape of the private equity space and be exposed to concepts and tools — shaped by the ongoing research of Wharton Private Equity Professor Bilge Yilmaz — that are used by private equity managers today. Case studies are current, relevant, and designed to maximize peer and faculty interaction.

During this program, you will have an opportunity to hear firsthand from Wharton alumni who are experts in the private equity space. As guest speakers, they will discuss their backgrounds and experiences, as well as their perspectives on the PE industry and the current economy.

Small-group work will provide an opportunity to apply new knowledge to a variety of private equity deals. Teamwork on case studies will expose participants to both the mechanics and art of the deal through a real-world lens. This approach will ensure that they understand the key drivers in the private equity market, the differences between funds’ strategies, and how those strategies can play out for investors.

Session topics include:
• Fund Structure
• The Leveraged Buyout Model.
• Deal Origination, Transaction, and Execution.
• Value Creation and Operational Improvement.
• Advanced and Best Practices in Private Equity.
• Commercial Due Diligence.
• The Limited Partners’ Perspective.
• Growth Equity
• Middle-Market Private Equity.
• Distressed Private Equity
• DCF Valuation in Emerging Markets.
• Private Equity in Emerging Markets.

The live, online version of Private Equity; Investing and Creating Value is a nine-day program that will be delivered online and taught by the same Wharton faculty who teach in the on-campus program. The online sessions are structured to allow for extensive Q&A so that participants can discuss and debate the constantly changing PE landscape.

Participants will have direct access to Wharton faculty throughout the program, and engage in dynamic group exercises that help reinforce the learning and enable networking among the peer community. Casework will set the foundation for faculty-led discussions where participants will pressure test assumptions from the past and plan for the future. Additionally, there will be distinguished guest speakers who will share their perspectives and real-world experience. As always, the general partner, limited partner, and founders' perspectives will be considered, as well as both the U.S. and the global outlook for private equity.

This online program is a fully immersive and structured learning experience that culminates with a new set of knowledge and tools that can be put to immediate use.

Building Your Network
The Private Equity program will also include multiple opportunities for you to get to know the other participants and build your professional network. These sessions include:
• Q&A Networking Forum
During these sessions, faculty will examine and discuss the most promising opportunities and most significant challenges participants' organizations are facing. Participants act as a sounding board while simultaneously identifying the commonalities that connect the issues across organizations.
• Wharton After Hours
Wharton faculty will lead an online discussion board that moves beyond the day’s content into global current events. Think of it as faculty office hours but online.

Private Equity Program - Highlights & Benefits
Gain insight into the:
• Analysis necessary for each investment stage of a private equity transaction.
• Key drivers in the private equity market and the differences between funds’ strategies.
• Tools to structure and analyze deals.

Who Should Attend?
The roles and job titles of participants might include:
• Chief investment officers and asset managers responsible for a firm’s portfolio
• Institutional investors with an interest in private equity funds
• in the process of receiving and/or structuring capital funds
• Investment consultants, accountants, family office representatives, and private bankers
• Actuaries and quantitative analysts
• Investor relations and investment professionals in private equity
• Investors in private equity, venture capital, and distressed assets

Fluency in English, written and spoken, is required for participation in Wharton Executive Education programs unless otherwise indicated.

2021 Sponsor

• Morgan Lewis