Publications
& Policy

In this response we stress the industry's support to the creation of a new category of long term equity exposures subject to a lower risk-weight, while explaining why the criteria proposed by the Commission to determine which investments fall into this category are inappropriate from our perspective.

In this response the PAE details the industry's concerns regarding the scope of the Key Information Document Regulation and the need to adapt it to sophisticated investors. It also highlights the irrelevance of existing performance scenarios for closed-ended and illiquid funds.

EIF: This European Small Business Finance Outlook (ESBFO) provides an overview of the main markets relevant to EIF (equity, guarantees, securitisation, microfinance)2. It is an update of the June 2018 ESBFO edition. We start by discussing the general market environment, then look at the main aspects of equity finance and guarantees/SME Securitisation (SMESec). Finally, before we conclude, we briefly highlight some important aspects of microfinance and Fintech in Europe.

The H1 2018 activity data report provides a semi-annual review of fundraising, investment and divestment trends for European private equity and venture capital activity. Please note that this data is preliminary and subject to change.

The findings of a survey of investors from the US, China, France, Germany and the UK. It outlines opinions on issues important to investors, such as capital markets strength, innovation and sustainability, and shows strong appetite for European investments.

While challenges remain in the UK economy, such as low productivity and continued political uncertainty, the UK’s private equity and venture capital industry has demonstrated its resilience by continuing to deliver substantial amounts of cash distributions to investors. Over the longer term, private equity continues to comfortably outperform public markets. The overall since-inception return has been steady, increasing to 14.5% in 2017 and demonstrating significant levels of stability in overall returns. Against a backdrop of political uncertainty in the UK and abroad, the industry continues to grow with all of the funds covered in the survey generating one-year IRRs of 38.5%. This compares favourably with the FTSE All-Share of 13.1% for the same period.

The Mid-Market Eurozone Index: The Argos Mid-Market Index measures the evolution of euro zone private Mid-Market company valuations. Carried out by Epsilon Research for Argos Wityu and published every three months, it reflects median EV/EBITDA multiples, on a six-month rolling basis, of Mid-Market M&A transactions in the euro zone.

This study presents the second part of the results from the first EIF VC Survey, a survey among venture capital general partners (GPs)/management companies headquartered in the EU-28 and some additional countries (mainly Norway, Switzerland and Turkey). The surveyed population includes both companies in which the EIF has invested as well as companies in which the EIF has not (or not yet) invested.

"Investors can capture more value by focusing on three best practices in private equity portfolio company exits."

In this response we outline several concerns regarding the EBA suggested approach to define the concepts of “investments in private equity” or “investments in venture capital firms” in the context of Article 128 of the Capital Requirements Regulation, as the proposed definitions could create more confusion than clarity, disicentivise banks' investment into private equity and venture capital funds and create a negative precedent for the industry in other legislation.

An Invest Europe study into private equity activity in Central and Eastern Europe. This report provides annual private equity and venture capital fundraising, investment and divestment statistics for the private equity markets of the CEE region in 2017.

We study employment and wages after private equity buyouts in Germany. We conduct matched-sample difference-in-differences estimations at the establishment and at the individual employee level with more than 152,000 buyout employees and a carefully matched control group. Employees of buyout targets experience earnings declines of €980 in the fifth year after the buyout, or 2.8% of median earnings. Separation rates increase significantly after buyouts, but about half of separations are compensated by additional hiring. Managers, older and white-collar employees fare worse than the average employee, but theories based on technological modernization, organizational streamlining, or a transfer of wealth can explain only little of the variation in employment outcomes across groups of employees. We argue that some employees fare worse after buyouts because turnover increases and they find it harder to regain employment.

Greenhill's market overview.

An in-depth study which outlines the tax environments for the private equity and venture capital industry around Europe, carried out in association with KPMG.

An introduction to the voluntary passport regime offered by the revised European Venture Capital Fund Regulation.