Tier 2: Fund Managers (GPs) – those who manage the private equity funds
The act of managing the funds and making investments is undertaken by the second tier. The second tier therefore represents the fund managers, who actively manage the private equity funds. These are commonly referred to as General Partners (GPs). These GPs are teams of experienced investment professionals with a wide base of specialist skills within fields ranging from finance, industry, consulting, and technology to mention some. The GPs will select, invest, consult, and exit the private equity funds’ portfolio companies.The GPs are therefore the ones who provide the portfolio companies with active ownership. The GPs will also invest in the fund they manage so they are more personally bound to the funds' performance and profilability.
A GP can manage several funds. When a new fund is being established, a target size and investment strategy is settled. Private Equity funds have a limited time horizon (usually 8-12 years, as stated in the limited partnership agreement). During this set time frame the capital should have been invested in portfolio companies, the companies should have been exited and the capital realized.
Tier 3: The private equity- owned companies – companies that make up the private equity fund’s portfolio
The third tier represents the companies that receive capital, knowledge and expertise from the private equity funds. These companies represent a broad spectre of industries ranging from life science, Information and communication technology, and cleantech to more traditional industries such as industrial and consumer sectors. There really is no limitation to which types of industries that may receive funding from private equity funds.However, due to the fact that these firms are most often unlisted and may be start-up or early stage businesses, funds tend to specialise on certain types of investments based on the knowledge, experience and strength of their team. With high asymmetries of information, the team’s specialist knowledge is crucial to select the firms which they can best improve, develop, expand, restructure and resell.