| Preface
The BVCA represents private equity in the UK. Its full members are private equity firms which provide equity funding to growing unquoted companies and account for over 95% of formal private equity investment in the UK. Associate members of the BVCA include firms that provide mezzanine finance, fund of fund managers, secondary purchasers, acquisition finance houses and direct investors into private equity funds, and also lawyers, accountants and other advisers experienced in the private equity field, as well as educational or research organisations closely associated with the private equity industry.
The BVCA is devoted to promoting the private equity industry. One of the ways the BVCA achieves this is by providing information to those seeking private equity. “A Guide to Private Equity” is a key component in the range of BVCA publications. For further details about other BVCA publications and research see the Appendix on pages 56-58 or the BVCA’s website www.bvca.co.uk.
Keith Arundale, of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, when advising entrepreneurs on preparing business plans and finance raising, realised that they often viewed the process of how private equity firms appraise business proposals and arrive at their required equity stakes as a mystery. He therefore suggested that the BVCA should have a guide to private equity – so he was duly asked to write it! The first Guide was published in April 1992 and since then many tens of thousands of copies have been sent out or downloaded from the BVCA’s website. This new edition has been updated by Keith and the section on the business plan further enlarged. I would like to thank Keith for initiating the Guide and for his continuing help over the years.
I would also like to thank the BVCA Executive and in particular Sarah Eaton for the production of another excellent Guide.
Anne Glover
BVCA Chairman
October 2004
|
