Multiple: X | Private Equity Conference

ESG has been a key topic in private equity with impact investing rising as a strategy. In this session, we will discuss both the evolution of this strategy, as well as ESG adoption across industry, as only of PE houses now have teams dedicated to responsible investment.

We will be joined by Dr. Marc Moser from Lightrock, Dr. Silva Deželan from Stafford Capital Partners and Pedro Fernández from ResponsAbility.

Dr. Marc Modser is the Head of Impact at Lightrock, impact investment arm of LGT, largest family-owned private banking and asset management group in the world with $260Bn AuM. Lightrock’s portfolio includes more than 60 high-growth companies, supported by over 55 professionals based in 5 offices.

Dr. Silva Deželan is the ESG Director at Stafford Capital Partners, private market investor with $7.7Bn AuM. The firm provides investment and advisory services in the agriculture, infrastructure, private equity, sustainability, timberland and venture.

Pedro Fernández is the Head Of Sustainability at responsAbility Investments AG,
leading impact investor with $3.5Bn AuM and investments in over 300 fully ESG-managed companies across 76 emerging economies.

Session will be moderated by LBS Prof. Ioannis Ioannou, whose research focuses on Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility.

Multiple:X is an annual Private Equity and Venture Capital Conference hosted by London Business School for the past 16 years. Conference attracts over 500 practitioners, students and other industry participants to provide a prestigious platform for rich debate, knowledge sharing and networking.

In the past, GPs had a broad investment mandate and were mainly executing buyout transactions. At the same time, most LPs used to invest in alternative assets pursuing a straight-ahead private equity allocation.

Recently, GP’s fierce competition has increased price multiples, and LPs have been looking to plug specific holes in their alternative asset allocation, funnelling more capital to GPs that offer something different.

Therefore, classic GPs buyout firms have been developing a better playbook to differentiate themselves in the fundraising and investment stage and to leverage these specialized capabilities to add value aggressively. This situation has given rise to innovative new fund types such as hyper focused and long-hold.

We will explore these new investment approaches and understand the opportunities and challenges of implementing these innovative strategies.

We will be joined by Timothy Franks from KKR, James Kim from Apollo, and Joseph Schull from Corten Capital.

Timothy Franks is a Partner of KKR. He joined KKR in 2017 and leads the development of KKR’s activities in the UK & Ireland within the Private Equity platform, the Consumer industry team in EMEA, and the longer-term Core investment strategy of the firm in Europe.

James Kim is a Managing Director and European Co-Head of Illiquid Opportunistic Credit. He is based in London and has invested in European corporate credit across various different strategies since joining the firm in 2010.

Joseph Schull is the Managing Partner of Corten Capital. Having joined Warburg Pincus in 1998, Joseph led the firm’s TMT group in Europe as well as its investment activities in Emerging Europe. He has led growth and buyout investments in B2B software and technology-enabled services, information services, cable broadband services and digital media.

Session will be moderated by Christian Dummett, Executive Director & Head of LBS Career Centre.

Multiple:X is an annual Private Equity and Venture Capital Conference hosted by London Business School for the past 16 years. Conference attracts over 500 practitioners, students and other industry participants to provide a prestigious platform for rich debate, knowledge sharing and networking.

COVID-19 upended the whole world - including all aspects of Private Equity. While deal activity has been strong, the impact on fundraising has not been covered in a lot of detail. We will talk to several funds raising their first funds or launching new strategies last year to see how this part of PE process has adapted to Zoom-led meetings and how this will impact deal activity down the line.

We will be joined by Richard Howell of PAI Partners, Fredrik Brynildsen of KLAR Partners and Nicolas Piau of TiLT Capital Partners.

Richard Howell is a Managing Partner at PAI Partners, £12B PE investor based in Europe. While typically PAI focuses on large-cap buyouts, they have launched a £800M mid-market fund in 2020, for which Richard has led the fundraising.

Fredrik Brynildsen is a Partner at KLAR Partners, PE investor that raised their first fund in 2020, making it the biggest ever inaugural fund in Europe at £520M. KLAR Partners are investing in business services and industrials companies across Nordics and DACH region.

Nicolas Piau is the Co-Founder and CEO of TiLT Capital Partners, PE investor in clean energy sector founded in 2019. They have been raising their inaugural £220M fund throughout the pandemic.

Session will be moderated by LBS Prof. Florin Vasvari, Academic Director of Private Equity at LBS.

Multiple:X is an annual Private Equity and Venture Capital Conference hosted by London Business School for the past 16 years. Conference attracts over 500 practitioners, students and other industry participants to provide a prestigious platform for rich debate, knowledge sharing and networking.

For more than 30 years, buyout firms have been at the centre of the private equity (PE) activity. However, in the last ten years, their share of assets declined from 62% to 41%, while other asset classes such as growth equity has risen.

Growth equity is an asset class that lies between buyout, investments in mature and positive cash flow companies, and venture capital, investment in start-ups with high growth potential. In comparison, growth equity funds invest in relatively mature companies looking for capital to expand their businesses.

We will understand the reasons behind the rise of growth equity and the trends shaping this asset class as more GPs compete in this market.

We will be joined by Mark Beith from APAX Digital and Christian Stein from Providence Strategic Growth (PSG), the growth equity affiliate of Providence Equity Partners.

Mark Beith is a Partner of Apax Digital and leads the team in Europe. He focuses on minority and buyout investments in high-growth software, internet and tech-enabled services businesses. He joined Apax in 2017 and has over 15 years of experience.

Chris is a Director of PSG in the London office since 2020. Previously, he was a director at Hg, where he focused on B2B software investments across Europe and the U.S.

Session will be moderated by Richard Bland, LBS Head of Finance Careers with focus on the Private Equity sector.

Multiple:X is an annual Private Equity and Venture Capital Conference hosted by London Business School for the past 16 years. Conference attracts over 500 practitioners, students and other industry participants to provide a prestigious platform for rich debate, knowledge sharing and networking.