2010 Private Equity Exclusive

Mid-Year Investor Outlook – Highlights from the latest Global Private Equity Barometer

• LP returns and the appetite for Private Equity
• Fund Terms and Conditions
• Distributions Forecast
• Private Equity Valuation Predictions

Keynote Speaker

Private Equity Portfolio Diagnostics

• Portfolio Management Issues
• What is your Optimal Allocation to Private Equity?
• Cash Flow and Valuation Forecasting
• Optimal Commitment Pacing
• How does your Performance compare to your Private and Public Market Benchmarks?
• What Generated your Performance?
• Is your Portfolio sufficiently Diversified and performing as expected?
• What is your Risk/Return Profile?
• Prospective Managers – will they decrease your portfolio’s risk through diversification and add to its return?

 

Fund of Funds

• Funds of Funds Market Growth   
• Why use Private Equity Fund of Funds?
• Pros and Cons of Fund of Funds
• Performance of Fund of Funds vs. Direct – Statistical Comparisons
• Mitigating Risk – what are the key Diversification Parameters?
• Selecting a Fund of Funds Manager – Due Diligence, Key Criteria
• What are the Points of Distinction between an upper quartile Manager and the median?
• Types of Fund of Fund Managers - Specialization
• Emerging Fund of Funds Strategies – Future Trends

Energy Private Equity

• Investing in Oil and Gas Production/Service Companies – evaluating opportunities and value
• Large Portion of Private Energy Companies - making investments crucial to growth
• Supply/Demand Outlook
• Inflation Hedge
• Are Investments likely to produce Returns Independent of Oil or Natural Gas Prices?
• Benefits of MLPs – non correlation to prices, steady cash flow, tax benefits, etc.

Emerging Managers (Discussion)

• What are the Benefits & Opportunities offered by Investing in Emerging Managers?
• Growth Prospects
• Exploiting Price Inefficiencies by utilizing Emerging Managers
• Why are Plan Sponsors establishing Emerging Manager Programs?
• What form do the Programs take?
• How are Plans defining Emerging Managers?
• Due Diligence and Key Points of Analysis for Selecting Emerging Managers
• How is establishing this type of Program different from others?
• Risk Profile and Monitoring
• How do you Measure Success?
• What is an important Lesson Learned from your Experiences?

Welcome Reception

Join us for Cocktails and Hors D’oeuvres. This is an opportunity to meet your fellow conference participants and peers in a casual setting. Familiarize yourself with the conference group at the open bar.

Welcome Reception Concludes

Private Equity Commodities Investing

• Current Market Environment – Global Slowdown, Demand and Pricing for Natural Resources
• Commodities as an Inflation Hedge
• Negative Correlation to other Private Equity Investments during periods of Stress or Crisis Events
• Diversifying to Non-Financial Sectors
• Tracking Inflation – making the case for Private Investment in Commodities vs. Public
• Generating attractive Returns regardless of Pricing Environment – Managing Volatility

Current State of the Private Equity Market, (Discussion)

• The Economy, Recession and its effects on Private Equity – What is your Outlook and Expectations for a Recovery?
• Allocation Issues - Is there Enough Liquidity or “Dry Powder” in your Portfolio, (or client’s Portfolio) to fund Private Equity?
• Difficulty in raising First Time Funds – are you seeing New Relationships?
• Do you expect a Wave of Closures or Mergers due to the Poor Fundraising Environment?
• What Trends have you seen for Fees and Terms?
• How big an issue are Capital Calls at this time?
• Do you see more GPs offering LPs the chance to Scale Back Commitments to previously Closed Funds?
• Understanding the LPs desire for Transparency – What other criteria will LPs focus on?
• Will the Buyout Market remain quiet and if so, why?
• Life after Leverage – what will Deal Flow look like in 2010 and what will it take to get Deals Done?
• Expectations for the Exit Market
• Bid-Ask Spread Issues in Secondaries – When do you expect them to Align and Volume to Increase?
• Are you allocating more Money to Special Situations?
• Where do you expect that we’ll see the Best Returns over the next Five Years?
• Is the Venture Model Broken?
• Are you concerned that the Decisions Against Placement Agents will have a Negative Effect on the Industry or Fundraising?
• Increased Regulation – Is it likely and what are the Effects?
• Do you expect Sovereign Wealth Funds to play a Larger Role in Private Equity in near future?

Refreshment Break

Buyouts, (Discussion)

• The ongoing Deleveraging Process – when will it end?
• Expectations for Deal Flow, (volume)
• Life After Leverage – What Trends do you see taking place to get Deals Done?
• Will we see Deals Underwritten entirely with Equity?
• How to “Play Defense” and improve Current Portfolios
• Is there still a lag between Private Company Valuations and Public Market Valuations?
• Exit Market – Identifying and Learning from recent Successful Exits
• What Areas of the World offer the most Opportunity now?
• How does the European Buy-Out Market look in comparison to the US?
• Is there Too Much Capital moving into the Middle Market?
• Has the definition of Middle Market Deals Changed?
• What is the Most Appealing Sector moving forward?  Thoughts on Health Care?
• Difficulty in Raising Successor Funds
• What are the Stress Factors on the Buyouts Funding Model?
• Taking Pension Fund Liquidity Constraints into consideration – will Deals be Structured Differently?
• Will Annex or Top-Up Funds Catch on or do you see it as Throwing Good Money after Bad?
• What Trends have you seen in Fund Terms?

Mezzanine Investing

• Challenges for Raising Capital in today’s Market
• Benefiting from the Banking Industry’s Failures - getting Deals Done while Lenders are Exiting the Market
• Mezzanine and its Performance in Economically Challenged Times – Views for this Cycle
• Why invest in Mezzanine?
• How are Deals being Structured and Priced?
• Understanding PIK – when should it be used and avoided?
• What does the Cash Flow Model and Return Structure look like?
• Issues, Competition, Liquidity, Pricing and Returns Expectations
• Risk/Reward of Micro, Middle, and Upper Middle Market
• Do you consider New Mezz Funds to be a Tough Sell?
• Is the Lack of Institutional Data and Coverage of the Mezzanine Asset Class a tough Obstacle to overcome?

Secondaries Investing, (Discussion)

• Reasons why Pension Plans are turning to the Secondary Market
• Have the most of the Sellers been driven by Liquidity Issues?
• Do you expect Capital Calls to become a Factor in the Secondary Market
• Current Volume of Secondary Activity
• Bid-Ask Spread – will we continue to see a Dearth of Deal Flow or will Seller and Buyer Expectations finally Align?
• What Forces are behind the Bid-Ask Spread?
• What sort of Discounts are we seeing on the Secondary Market?
• Pent Up Demand – What Catalyst needs to happen for more Selling and Deal Activity to Increase?
• When do you expect Market Activity to pick up and Who will be the Sellers?
• Has TARP and the relaxing of FAS 157 eliminated the sense of urgency for Banks to Sell?
• How should LPs get Exposure to the Secondary Market and what are successful Buy Strategies?
• What should LPs consider when Liquidating portions of their Private Equity Portfolio?
• What are the Risk/Return Characteristics of Secondaries vs. Private Equity in general?

Lunch

Credit Strategies, (Discussion)

• What is the Current State of the Credit Market?
• How will this Credit Cycle play out?
• Has the Market Priced in the Worst yet?
• Are there still Dislocations and Attractive Credit Spreads?
• How has TALF impacted the Market thus far?
• What Credit Opportunities are available as a result of the Liquidity Crisis?
• How can Pension Plans take advantage of these Opportunities and profit from it?
• How should Pension Plans go about Analyzing and Selecting from the various Credit Funds and Direct Lending Strategies?
• How do you go about Selecting a Manager?
• How do you Manage a Credit Program in a Volatile Market?
• Are Credit Funds a Fad or can you Profit from them for several years to come?

Distressed Investing, (Discussion)

• Where are we in the Distressed Cycle and how long do you expect it to last?
• What is Different about this Cycle?
• Has the “Day of Reckoning” been delayed?
• When could we see the Best Opportunities from Maturing Loans coming due?
• How are you deploying Capital in Distressed Strategies today?
• Forced Deleveraging – what Sectors will create the Best Opportunities in the coming years?
• Does Distressed Investing in Europe mirror what’s going on here?
• Do you see Opportunities in Asia?
• How can Pension Plans take advantage of Opportunities?
• Has TALF and PPIP worked and how has it affected the Distressed Market?
• Do you see more Buyout Firms moving into Distressed Deals?
• Overview of the Risks – leverage, illiquidity, lengthy redemption terms, no requirement of periodic pricing, etc.
• Which do you see as the Best Strategy: Passive, Control or Non-Control?

Refreshment Break

Venture Capital

• State of the Venture Industry and Fundraising Environment
• Status of the Exit Market and IPO Pipeline
• Do you believe that many VC Firms are attracting Capital based on their Reputation from the last Tech Boom?
• Are we more likely to see Money going into Late-Stage rather than Early-Stage?
• Will we see Smaller Sized Allocations into Venture?
• What is the Average Investment to Exit Timeframe?
• What Trends are you seeing in VC?
• European and Asian VC Outlook
• Are Funding Models changing to get Cash Flowing again?
• Understanding Venture Returns – Underperformance when Investing at Market Peaks vs. Outperformance when Investing at Market Troughs

CleanTech

• CleanTech Market Overview
• Available Capital and Deal Flow
• What Effect will Obama’s CleanTech Funding Plans have on the Industry?
• Are Corporate Investments into the Sector playing a Larger Role?
• Will we see a Decline in Early-Stage Investments?
• Which Technologies or Sectors look the most Promising?
• Institutional Approaches to the Sector
• Challenges and Pitfalls to CleanTech Investing
• The Exit Outlook

Emerging Markets

• Major Developments over the Past Year – Emerging Markets on the Rise or just more Volatile?
• Long Term Global Outlook
• Will Emerging Markets eventually break free of their Dependency on the US Consumer and lead?
• Is China’s Growth as strong as they claim, or are their Numbers Exaggerated?
• BRIC Counties – GDP, Growth, Debt and Reserves in comparison to Developed Markets
• Which Countries offer the Best Opportunities and Returns?
• Competitive Pricing – are Investors paying Higher Prices for Entry into the Market?
• Should you be Investing in Regional Funds, Country Specific Funds or Sector Funds, (ie. Financials, Commodities)
• Identifying and Managing Barriers/Risks specific to Emerging Markets
• Developing Exit Strategies
• Do First-Time Funds have a chance?
• Choosing an Emerging Markets Fund or Manager
• Making the case for Frontier Markets – Diversification, Low Correlation to Developed Markets
• Prospects for MENA – What sectors make sense?
• Is there a MENA Capital Drought?
• Barriers/Risks to MENA - Political, Currency, Corruption, Limited Research, Low Liquidity, Access, etc.

Infrastructure Investing

• Infrastructure Demand and Size of the Market - where are they Projected to be for the Future?
• Obama’s Infrastructure Plans – not a significant effect?
• Infrastructure Spending Gap
• Will CA & NY Infrastructure Commissions Stimulate Investments and set an example?
• Why Invest in Infrastructure?
• Infrastructure as an Inflation Hedge and Portfolio Diversification
• Implementation Options – Primary Partnerships, Direct, Co-Investment, Fund of Funds or Publicly Listed
• What should you look for in an Infrastructure Manager?
• Risk/Return Profiling – Which Infrastructure Assets are classified as High Risk and Low Risk?
• In which Sectors will investors find the best Opportunities and Returns?
• Outlook and Challenges for Global Infrastructure Investing
• Mature vs. Emerging Markets
• Investing in Energy Infrastructure
• Infrastructure Risks

Conference Concludes

Bus Leaves for U.S. Cellular Field

Join us for a Chicago White Sox Game in a Diamond Suite. Network with our group in an incredible setting and a great view of the game! Experience the luxurious surroundings including new furnishings, flat-screen TVs, sliding glass windows, deluxe theater style seating, open bar and food. Join us for networking and excitement!