Private Equity Size

"Worked at a $1bn private equity firm"

Is that $1bn referring to:

  1. AUM
  2. Size of current fund
  3. Amount of fund invested
  4. Total amount of fund raised?

I keep reading sentences like these and have no idea which people are referring to.

 
ThaVanBurenBoyz:
The terms lower middle market and middle market have nothing to do with the PE firm or fund size. It has to do with the size of the companies they target; the firm's strategy. For example, Riverside Company is a multi-billion dollar firm that targets the lower middle market.

Exactly. Thanks for pointing that out, too many morons here think that MM means they manage like $1M and work out of a trailer.

We've got half a million shares in the bag!
 

There are no BB PE firms. They would be referred to as megafunds. Examples include Blackstone, KKR, Carlye, Bain Capital, Apollo, TPG (and most include Warburg). Not a steadfast rule, but >$20Bn in AUM (for PE specifically - not credit or real estate) is around the cut off for 'megafund' these days.

$3Bn fund would be considered MM PE.

MM PE encompasses a wide range from Lower MM PE (shops most people have never heard of with) to top-tier MM PE (THL, CD&R, etc.). PE shops are rarely referred to as boutiques - they normally call themselves Lower MM, even if they only have a few hundred million in AUM. $3Bn would fall in b/w Lower MM and top-tier MM. Definitely a sizable shop and probably fairly well respected, but definitely not a household name.

Deal flow is more volatile at smaller places. Can certainly be slow, but smaller shops will have less staff, so if there are a lot of live deals, you can still get slammed at a small PE shop.

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nontargetPSD92:

Not a steadfast rule, but >$20Bn in AUM (for PE specifically - not credit or real estate)

Can you elaborate on this some more? I thought real estate and credit were a big part of PE. What about oil exploration? The only reason I ask is because I'm interviewing with a group like this and am not sure where it would be in the PE world. They own a ton of commercial real estate nation wide.

 
Best Response
JustNumbers:

I think I'm getting what I was interviewing for with a family office. It's basically one very rich guy at the head of his office but it buys/sells a lot of CRE, and has plays in the areas I was talking about too.

How does working on the deal team of a family office compare in terms of promotions, pay structure, exit ops, or MBA admission?

Not much of a hierarchy because they're so small, but this gives you the opportunity to demand more work/responsibility faster and they will be more open to changing your title because the title is meaningless to them relative to the work you're doing (whereas at bigger firms the title defines the work you're doing). You'll also develop closer relations with your coworkers and will get much better access to their personal/professional networks. Much more exposure in that regard.

For MBA, you won't have name recognition or the pedigree bump that comes from it, but you can potentially use the flexibility of your firm to get into more leadership type stuff, which would look good on your application.

 

I want to move out out of Corp Fin (Treasury specifically) in search of something more exciting. Would this be a solid move if you were getting deal exposure and managing the stock portfolio of the office? If it won't be very supportive for getting into a good MBA program, would it also limit my potential for other lucrative career moves, such as larger PE firms, corp strategy, or banking? I think I can understand it being helpful experience for wealth mgmt. Thoughts?

 

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