Insegnamento a.a. 2018-2019

The course is divided into four different sessions aiming to give a whole and deep understanding of the private equity and venture capital business:

1. Private equity and venture capital in the financial system.
   • The special role of private equity and venture capital industry: why are they necessary in a modern economy?
   • Market trends in Europe and in US.
   • Competitive models of private equity and venture capital: angels and informal investors; incubators; start-up financer; closed-end funds; merchant banks; vulture funds.
2. Regulatory and legal issues.
   • Regulations and supervision towards investing in non financial firms.
   • The functioning of private equity fund: management fee and carried interest; managers and investors.
   • Legal and fiscal issues for venture capital investment schemes: European versus US and UK patterns (closed-end fund, venture capital fund, Sbic, VCT, angel investing).
3. Management of a private equity and a venture capital fund.
   • Introduction to different categories of investment: new ventures, start up, young firms, high potential firms, family owned firms and turnaround involved companies.
   • The value chain of investing in firms: a broad vision.
4. The valuation of the target company: how to evaluate and how to manage the deal?
   • Management issues: managing the single investment, funding process, managing the portfolio of investments, exit way process.

• Recognize how the different equity investors in the investment banking and financial markets activities are reshaping their investment strategies to gain a strong competitive advantage and an effective performance.
• To identify, among the different investment strategies put in place by private equity and venture capital investors, which are the main investment structure utilised into different legal and fiscal framework.
• To identify the phases of a deal – origination, implementation and execution – in the different segments of the equity investment.

• Analyze the needs of a corporate client and to identify the best financial solution available to tackle them by using equity capital.
• Structure a private equity transaction or a venture capital transaction and coordinate the different parties involved in the transaction itself.
• Set up the best approach to pitch a potential customer for an advisory mandate.
• Demonstrate organizational skills in collecting the relevant information necessary to the deal structuring.

• Face-to-face lectures
• Online lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Exercises (exercises, database, software etc.)
• Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)

The learning experience of this course is mainly based on face-to-face lectures. However, each of the four modules set forth in Section 1 is accompanied by case discussions and presentations by external guest speakers. The use of cases and external speakers aims at better connecting the body of knowledge covered in the course with real life examples, typically focused on complex investment banking transactions. The interaction between the instructor and students during the case discussions and the presentations helps students understand how professionals in the field approach a transaction and organize it in a structured process going from the deal origination to the final deal execution. The eusage of some lessons coming from the e-learning version of th ecourse, help the students to focus better on some techincal aspect. The usage of exercises and sotwares enable students to a better understanding of professional best practices.

Students have the possibility to choose two options:

1. Two partial exams. In this case, the final mark is  determined as the average of the marks on the two partial exams (provided that both exams receive a mark of at least 18/30). The partial exams include one open question, based on exercises and thirty multiple choices. The timing for the exam is generally 75 minutes.
2. A final exam on all the topics covered in the course after the course completion. The full exam includes 2 questions, based on exercises and thirty multiple choices. The timing of the exam is generally 90 minutes.

The questions of the written exam require either to argument some specific issues discussed during the course or to apply the concepts to numerical examples and mini cases. The final objective of the exam is to verify the students’ capabilities and mastery to collect and to organize information and numerical data to solve some of the problems faced by private equity investors and clients working with equity investors through their entire life-cycle.

Students have the possibility to choose two options:

1. Two partial exams. In this case, the final mark is determined as the average of the marks on the 2 partial exams (provided that both exams receive a mark of at least 18/30). The partial exams include 1 open question, based on exercises and thirty multiple choices. The timing for the exam is generally 75 minutes.
2. A final exam on all the topics covered in the course after the course completion. The full exam includes 2 questions, based on exercises and thirty multiple choices. The timing of the exam is generally 90 minutes.

The questions of the written exam require either to argument some specific issues discussed during the course or to apply the concepts to numerical examples and mini cases. The final objective of the exam is to verify the students’ capabilities and mastery to collect and to organize information and numerical data to solve some of the problems faced by private equity investors and clients working with equity investors through their entire life-cycle.

Contrarily to the 2017-2018 edition of the course for the Academic Year 2018-2019, the exam is only written both for attending and non-attending students and no group assignment is asked. 

For all attending students:

• Slides and ad hoc readings available in the Bboard Platform.
• Video available in the Bboard Platform.
• Text of case studies available in the Bboard Platform.
• Softwares and exercises available in the Bboard Platform.

For all not attending students:

• Slides and ad hoc readings available in the Bboard Platform
• The book: S. CASELLI, G. NEGRI, Private equity and venture capital in Europe,  Elsevier Academic Press, 2018.
• Video available in the Bboard Platform.
• Text of case studies available in the Bboard Platform
• Softwares and exercises available in the Bboard Platform.

The course is divided into four different sessions aiming to give a whole and deep understanding of the private equity and venture capital business:

1. Private equity and venture capital in the financial system.
   • The special role of private equity and venture capital industry: why are they necessary in a modern economy?
   • Market trends in Europe and in US.
   • Competitive models of private equity and venture capital: angels and informal investors; incubators; start-up financer; closed-end funds; merchant banks; vulture funds.
2. Regulatory and legal issues.
   • Regulations and supervision towards investing in non financial firms.
   • The functioning of private equity fund: management fee and carried interest; managers and investors.
   • Legal and fiscal issues for venture capital investment schemes: European versus US and UK patterns (closed-end fund, venture capital fund, Sbic, VCT, angel investing).
3. Management of a private equity and a venture capital fund.
   • Introduction to different categories of investment: new ventures, start up, young firms, high potential firms, family owned firms and turnaround involved companies.
   • The value chain of investing in firms: a broad vision.
4. The valuation of the target company: how to evaluate and how to manage the deal?
   • Management issues: managing the single investment, funding process, managing the portfolio of investments, exit way process.

• Recognize how the different equity investors in the investment banking and financial markets activities are reshaping their investment strategies to gain a strong competitive advantage and an effective performance.
• To identify, among the different investment strategies put in place by private equity and venture capital investors, which are the main investment structure utilised into different legal and fiscal framework.
• To identify the phases of a deal – origination, implementation and execution – in the different segments of the equity investment.

• Analyze the needs of a corporate client and to identify the best financial solution available to tackle them by using equity capital.
• Structure a private equity transaction or a venture capital transaction and coordinate the different parties involved in the transaction itself.
• Set up the best approach to pitch a potential customer for an advisory mandate.
• Demonstrate organizational skills in collecting the relevant information necessary to the deal structuring.

• Online lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Exercises (exercises, database, software etc.)

The learning experience of this course is mainly based on on-line lectures. However, each of the four modules set forth in Section 1 is accompanied by case discussions and presentations by external guest speakers. The use of cases and external speakers aims at better connecting the body of knowledge covered in the course with real life examples, typically focused on complex investment banking transactions. Furthermore, the interaction between the instructor and students through on-line live sessions helps students understand how professionals in the field approach a transaction and organize it in a structured process going from the deal origination to the final deal execution. The usage of exercises and sotwares enable students to a better understanding of professional best practices.

Teaching materials

ATTENDING AND NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS