Quotes & Sayings About Private Equity

Private equity helps produce strong companies, promotes innovation and spurs job growth. — N. Robert Hammer

I am all in favor of pay equity for women, but this kind of legislation, as is typical of what's being proposed by my friends on the other side of the aisle, opens us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems ... This is government playing a much, much greater role in the business of a private enterprise system. — John McCain

It's very hard for individual inventors to get paid. For the same reason that private equity is valuable - broadly, that's a good thing - in the case of patents, many that own them aren't in a good position to take the next step. — Nathan Myhrvold

Hedge funds, private equity and venture capital funds have played an important role in providing liquidity to our financial system and improving the efficiency of capital markets. But as their role has grown, so have the risks they pose. — Jack Reed

The lingo used in the space is so arcane and out of date that investors have no context for the discussions. The failure to establish a clear, effective communication system has been the biggest sin private equity has committed. — Bob Rice

I always rejoice when I see a tribunal filled with a man of an upright and inflexible temper, who in the execution of his country's laws can overcome all private fear, resentment, solicitation, and even pity it self. Whatever passion enters into a sentence or decision, so far will there be in it a tincture of injustice. In short, justice discards party, friendship, kindred, and is therefore always represented as blind, that we may suppose her thoughts are wholly intent on the equity of a cause, without being diverted or prejudiced by objects foreign to it. — Joseph Addison

As president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, I have seen private equity firms plunder company after company, taking rich fees for themselves and cutting costs until there's nothing left to cut. Time and again I've seen their reckless behavior drive companies to declare bankruptcy. — James P. Hoffa

STG is a combination of a holding company and a private equity model. — Romesh Wadhwani

A good default, like Portugal or Greece, would be very good for the private equity business. — David Bonderman

[I believe in] the throne ... parliamentary institutions ... private enterprise and individual opinion against the socialization of the state ... equity in the distribution of public burdens and strict maintenance of public faith with the creditors of the state [and] a fresh guarantee of peace by an alliance with France and ... Belgium for the defence of our common interests against unprovoked attack. — Austen Chamberlain

We've got to move beyond the idea that the public and private sectors are at odds. Government has to lay the groundwork for private equity to productively invest in things like education. It's a partnership, not a battle. — Sebastian Pinera

I delivered lectures, and I was also a consultant for international companies in finance, both private equity and big venture capital funds. — Ehud Barak

Generally, an indie film in the U.K. is put together much like in the states. We got a tax credit. You sell the domestic rights, which can be quite low, but it's enough to push you over the line. And you get a tax credit on top of that, and then you cobble it together with private equity or gap financing and things like that. — Noel Clarke

I strongly believe in the fact
that there's still plenty of money and plenty of private equity capital
available around the globe. What are in short supply are great entrepreneurs
and great teams. A trading opportunity or a company's biggest
challenge is and has always been the team behind it. There's enormous
change under way in every facet of the world. Some is technology
driven, some is market driven. All that change creates unprecedented
opportunity, but to take full advantage of such opportunities I mostly
focus on the team. The right teams and right people behind those
opportunities always win. There is no secret sauce. Trading and investing
has, in my experience, boiled down to building relationships and
exchanging value. It consists of striking the right balance between
backing and interacting with the right teams with the right business
model at the right time and with the right amount of money. — Ziad K. Abdelnour

I think good private equity investors create a lot more economic value than they destroy. — Bill Ackman

Private equity has absolutely no reason to exist. The private equity holder has all the upside and the banks all the downside. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Get rid of all the cleaners, rubbish collectors, bus drivers, supermarket checkout staff and secretaries, for example, and society will very quickly grind to a halt. On the other hand, if we woke up one morning to find that all the highly paid advertising executives, management consultants and private equity directors had disappeared, society would go on much as it did before: in a lot of cases, probably quite a bit better. So, — Owen Jones

In the 1930s, there as a stretch here you could borrow more against the real estate than you could sell it for. I think that's hat's going on in today's private-equity world. — Charlie Munger

I've heard that one-half of the students at elite schools want to go into private equity or hedge funds. They want to keep up with their age cohorts at Goldman. This can't possibly end well in terms of meeting these expectations. — Charlie Munger

Whether a tops-down or bottoms-up investor in bonds, stocks, or private equity, the standard analysis tends to judge an investor or his firm on the basis of how the bullish or bearish aspects of the cycle were managed. — Bill Gross

Let's face it, we're skunk drunk and it's because of money. It's almost like we all need to enter Betty Ford Clinic 2.0 together. This time, it's not stock market money but private equity, M&A, VCs and to some degree the reckless abandonment of logic by some advertisers who are perpetuating what is sure to end badly when the economy turns. Hubris is back my friends. — Steve Rubel

If private-equity firms are as good at remaking companies as they claim, they don't need tax loopholes to make money. — James Surowiecki

Unless we have the wealth to pay for private education, we are compelled by law to go to public school - and to the public school in our district. Thus the state, by requiring attendance but refusing to require equity, effectively requires inequality. Compulsory inequity, perpetuated by state law, too frequently condemns our children to unequal lives. — Jonathan Kozol

People used to think that private equity was basically just a compensation scheme, but it is much more about making companies more efficient. — David Rubenstein

It's quite astonishing how much money people make in the hedge fund business and in the private equity field, and how well-off affluent families really are. — Kenneth Rogoff

Private equity funds a substantial amount of new businesses and is the source of capital to rejuvenate failing businesses, which are major drivers of job growth in this economy. — N. Robert Hammer

There is no denying that downsizing can happen when a company receives private equity funding. It is unfortunate and hard on everyone who is affected. — N. Robert Hammer

Private-equity and hedge-fund guys typically come into a situation of mediocrity, where rapid change may result in a profit. — Austin Ligon

State funds, private equity, venture capital, and institutional lending all have their role in the lifecycle of a high tech startup, but angel capital is crucial for first-time entrepreneurs. Angel investors provide more than just cash; they bring years of expertise as both founders of businesses and as seasoned investors. — Jay Samit

Not all private equity people are evil. Only some. — Paul Krugman

Big banks have long had private equity divisions that put up capital for deals too complex or risky for individual shareholders to finance. — Alex Berenson

By Liberty I understand the Power which every Man has over his own Actions, and his Right to enjoy the Fruits of his Labour, Art, and Industry, as far as by it he hurts not the Society, or any Members of it, by taking from any Member, or by hindering him from enjoying what he himself enjoys. The Fruits of a Man's honest Industry are the just Rewards of it, ascertained to him by natural and eternal Equity, as is his Title to use them in the Manner which he thinks fit: And thus, with the above Limitations, every Man is sole Lord and Arbitrer of his own private Actions and Property. — Cato The Younger

In the '70s and '80s, what private equity did is it changed corporate America. It started holding companies accountable, and for the first time managers started thinking like owners. — Henry Kravis

One thing I'm so grateful for is sidestepping the usual venture capital, private equity route. My friends who have gone that way are many times beholden to their boards of directors, to 'sell' ideas to a team. — Blake Mycoskie

We really wake up every day trying to build businesses. That is the goal of private equity. It's a misnomer out there that private equity profits by shrinking companies. In fact, it's just the opposite. Private equity creates value by growing great companies. — Stephen Pagliuca

Most of India's 300 odd news channels are making losses and are dependent on dubious cross holding, black money and dodgy private equity investors, both foreign and Indian. — Mohammad Hamid Ansari

Private equity has been the purview of super wealthy individuals and institutions. — Michael Lee-Chin

People in private equity complain that they have so much capital and so few places to invest. But you have lots of entrepreneurs trying to raise money at the low end and find that they can't get funding because of this mismatch. I think that there is an opportunity there. — Clayton Christensen

Wall Street, with its army of brokers, analysts, and advisers funneling trillions of dollars into mutual funds, hedge funds, and private equity funds, is an elaborate fraud. — Michael Lewis

Private equity does pay very well, and my counterparts, guys that I grew up with who are still working at a number of firms, all make a lot of money. — Gerry Schwartz

In our equities business, 49 of the 50 most important Lehman clients are back doing business with us. The flows are 75 to 80 per cent of what they were prior to the bankruptcy. The issues which damaged Lehman were around commercial mortgages and illiquid private equity assets. — Bob Diamond

I see myself as a private-equity investor that helps rebuild companies. Restructuring is a cottage industry in that there aren't that many serious practitioners. — Wilbur Ross

I think this is also a great time to invest in private equity, helping companies grow from the ground up. — Jim Rogers

Private equity firms aren't necessarily evil by definition. There are many stories of successful turnarounds fueled by private equity, often involving multiple floundering businesses that are rolled into a single entity, eliminating duplicative overhead. — Matt Taibbi

It's clear to me when you do private equity well, you're making companies more efficient and helping them grow and become more profitable. That success means our investors - such as public pension funds - benefit, which contributes to the economic wealth of society. — David Rubenstein

I've probably done more venture capital deals and expansion financings than I have done private equity deals. But both are the same. Private equity companies have also built jobs. — Stephen Pagliuca

For most Indians in America, wealth is not inherited. Neither do we make it as heads of large hedge funds and private equity funds. For us to make it to the top, we have to use our knowhow to create great new technology products and build high-tech companies. — Romesh Wadhwani

I wanted a CFO with public company experience; I needed an HR department, new office space, and a board which could help me grow the business. Insight, the private equity firm I chose, helped me with all that. — Jon Oringer

We've always been modestly leveraged, and we've never believed in a great deal of leverage on either our private equity business or on our investment banking business. And I think it really goes back to my uncle and dad growing up in the Depression and just seeing what happened to people who were overly levered. — Warren Stephens

Banks don't want certain asset classes, and that's created opportunities for private equity, hedge funds, Silicon Valley. In this case I think he was referring to some of the European banks shedding assets, and the big buyers are probably not going to be big American banks. Someone like Blackstone may have a very good chance to buy those assets, leverage them, borrow up a little bit, and do something good there. — Jamie Dimon

The role of private equity as fiduciaries is certainly to make money. — Thomas G. Stemberg