Industry WIKI

Accumulators (a.k.a. share forward accumulators) are financial structured products sold by an issuer (seller) to investors (the buyer) that require the buyers to buy shares of some underlying security at a predetermined strike price, settled periodically.

Actis LLP is a global investment firm focused on sustainable infrastructure, in particular the energy, infrastructure, and real estate asset classes.

Akpan Hogan Ekpo (born 26 June 1954) is a Nigerian economist and professor. He is an emeritus professor of economics and public policy at the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Ekpo is also the chairman of the Foundation for Economic Research and Training (FERT) in Lagos, Nigeria. He was the director general of the West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management (

Alex Nain Saab Morán (born 21 December 1971) is a Colombian-born Venezuelan businessman who served as Venezuela’s Minister of Industry and National Production from October 2024 to January 2026.

The American Investment Council (AIC), formerly the Private Equity Growth Capital Council (PEGCC), is a lobbying, advocacy, and research organization based in Washington, D.C., that was launched by a consortium of private equity firms in February 2007. It focuses on defending and promoting the private equity and growth capital investment industry to lawmakers and the public at large. Its

Arif Masood Naqvi (born 13 July 1960) is a Pakistani businessman, who was the founder and chief executive of the Dubai-based private equity firm, The Abraaj Group and Aman Foundation. The Abraaj Group was founded in 2002 and operated in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Middle East, Turkey and Central Asia, and is currently in liquidation due to accusations of fraud.

Asset stripping is the selling off of a company's assets to improve returns for equity investors, often a financial investor, a "corporate raider", who takes over another company and then auctions off the acquired company's assets. The term is generally used in a pejorative sense as such activity is not considered helpful to the company.

Assets under management (AUM), sometimes called fund under management (FUD), refers in finance to the total market value of all financial assets that a financial institution—such as a mutual fund, venture capital firm, or depository institution—or a decentralized network protocol manages and invests, typically on behalf of its clients. Funds may be managed for clients, platform users, or

A banker's acceptance is a document issued by a bank institution that represents a bank's commitment to make a requested future payment. The request will typically specify the payee, the amount, and the date on which it is eligible for payment. After acceptance, the request becomes an unconditional liability of the bank. Banker's acceptances are distinguished from ordinary time drafts in

Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco is a 1989 book about the leveraged buyout (LBO) of RJR Nabisco, written by investigative journalists Bryan Burrough and John Helyar. The book is based upon a series of articles written by the authors for The Wall Street Journal.

Bellevue Group AG, headquartered in Zurich, is a listed investment management corporation based in Switzerland. The company is active in the areas of healthcare investments, investments in small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as multi asset and bonds.

Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. It was founded in 1985 as a mergers and acquisitions firm by Peter Peterson and Stephen Schwarzman, who had previously worked together at Lehman Brothers. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real

Book building is a systematic process of generating, capturing, and recording investor demand for shares. Usually, the issuer appoints a major investment bank to act as a major securities underwriter or bookrunner.

A bought out deal is a method of offering company shares to the general public through a sponsor or underwriter (a bank, financial institution, or an individual). The securities are listed in one or more stock exchanges within a time frame mutually agreed upon by the company and the sponsor. This option saves the issuing company the costs and time involved in a public issue. The cost of

Brigade Capital Management, LP, more commonly referred to as Brigade Capital, is a global alternative investment manager specializing in credit investment strategies. The firm employs a multi-strategy, multi-asset class investment approach focused on leveraged balance sheets and manages core strategies across long/short credit, distressed debt, capital structure arbitrage, long/short eq

Bumble Bee Foods, LLC, is an American company that produces canned tuna, salmon, other seafoods, and chicken under the brand names "Bumble Bee," "Wild Selections," "Beach Cliff," "Brunswick," and "Snow's." The brand is marketed as "Clover Leaf" in Canada. The company is headquartered in San Diego, California, United States. It is owned by FCF Co, Ltd. of Taiwan.

A Business Development Company (BDC) is a form of unregistered closed-end investment company in the United States that invests in small and mid-sized businesses. This form of company was created by the US Congress in 1980 in the amendments to the Investment Company Act of 1940. Publicly filing firms may elect regulation as BDCs if they meet certain requirements of the Investment Company

BGF, established in 2011 as the Business Growth Fund, is a leading European mid-market private equity and investment firm that provides scaleup support for small and mid-sized businesses. The firm is recognised as The United Kingdom and Ireland's most active growth equity investor.

In finance, a buyout is an investment transaction by which the ownership equity, or a controlling interest of a company, or a majority share of the capital stock of the company is acquired. The acquirer thereby "buys out" the present equity holders of the target company. Shareholder activism can result in buyouts. A buyout will often include the purchasing of the target company's outstan

Campbell Lutyens is an independent private markets / private capital advisory firm exclusively focused on primary fundraising, secondary transactions and GP stakes/GP M&A advisory services in the private equity, private debt, infrastructure and sustainable investing markets.

Carried interest, or carry, in finance, is a share of the profits of an investment paid to the investment manager specifically in alternative investments (private equity and hedge funds). It is a performance fee, rewarding the manager for enhancing performance. Since these fees are generally not taxed as normal income, some believe that the structure unfairly takes advantage of favorable

CashU was an Arabic fintech company providing a digital wallet and online payment services for customers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The company was founded as a technology startup in July 2002 in association with online service company Maktoob in Amman, Jordan. It provided payment services for Maktoob online services. The company went through a number of rounds of

Clifford Todd Boro is an American entrepreneur and startup investor. He is best known as cofounder and former CEO of KidZui (now Zui.com), a child-oriented web browser and search engine. Saban Brands bought Zui.com in September 2012. He founded Internet Financial Network (later Infogate). AOL Time Warner bought Infogate in March 2003. He is cofounder and managing partner of The Team Gr

A club deal, in finance, refers to a leveraged buyout or other private equity investment that involves two or more private equity firms. It can also be referred as consortium or syndicated investment.

A collateralized fund obligation (CFO) is a form of securitization involving private equity fund or hedge fund assets, similar to collateralized debt obligations. CFOs are a structured form of financing for diversified private equity portfolios, layering several tranches of debt ahead of the equity holders.

Collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) are a form of securitization where payments from multiple middle sized and large business loans are pooled together and passed on to different classes of owners in various tranches. A CLO is a type of collateralized debt obligation, or CDO.

In corporate finance, Contingent Value Rights (CVR) are rights granted by an acquirer to a company’s shareholders, facilitating the transaction where some uncertainty is inherent. CVRs may be separately tradeable securities; they are occasionally acquired (or shorted) by specialized hedge funds.

A control premium is an amount that a buyer is sometimes willing to pay over the current market price of a publicly traded company in order to acquire a controlling share in that company.

Corporate venture capital (CVC) is the investment of corporate funds directly in external startup companies. CVC is defined by the Business Dictionary as the "practice where a large firm takes an equity stake in a small but innovative or specialist firm, to which it may also provide management and marketing expertise; the objective is to gain a specific competitive advantage." Examples o

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB; French: Office d'investissement du régime de pensions du Canada), operating as CPP Investments (French: Investissements RPC), is a Canadian Crown corporation established by way of the 1997 Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Act to oversee and invest the funds contributed to and held by the Canada Pension Plan (CPP).

A credit default swap index is a credit derivative used to hedge credit risk or to take a position on a basket of credit entities. Unlike a credit default swap, which is an over the counter credit derivative, a credit default swap index is a completely standardized credit security and may therefore be more liquid and trade at a smaller bid–offer spread. This means that it can be cheaper

CrossHarbor Capital Partners is an American investment firm, specializing in private equity, based in Boston. CrossHarbor Capital Partners develops and manages private equity investment products in three principal business areas: real assets, distressed securities and mezzanine capital. CrossHarbor has assets under management of $5.5 billion diversified over a half dozen distinct funds

Deal flow is a term used by finance professionals such as venture capitalists, angel investors, private equity investors and investment bankers to refer to the rate at which they receive business proposals/investment offers. The term is also used not as a measure of rate, but simply to refer to the stream of offers or opportunities as a collective whole. An organization's deal flow is co

Delta one products are financial derivatives that have no optionality and as such have a delta of (or very close to) one – meaning that for a given instantaneous move in the price of the underlying asset there is expected to be an identical move in the price of the derivative. Delta one products can sometimes be synthetically assembled by combining options. For instance, you can be long

A direct public offering (DPO) is a method by which a company can offer an investment opportunity directly to the public.

The dirham, dirhem or drahm is a unit of currency and of mass. It is the name of the currencies of Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Armenia, and is the name of a currency subdivision in Jordan, Libya, Qatar and Tajikistan. It was historically a silver coin.

In private equity investing, distribution waterfall is a method by which the capital gained by the fund is allocated between the limited partners (LPs) and the general partner (GP).

The early history of private equity relates to one of the major periods in the history of private equity and venture capital. Within the broader private equity industry, two distinct sub-industries, leveraged buyouts and venture capital experienced growth along parallel although interrelated tracks.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, commonly known as EBITDA ( EE-bit-dah, EB-it-dah), is a measure of a company's profitability of the operating business only, before any effects of indebtedness, state-mandated payments, and costs required to maintain its asset base. It is derived by subtracting from revenues all costs of the operating business (e.g., wages,

Echoes of Mana was a 2022 action role-playing video game developed by Wright Flyer Studios and published by Square Enix for Android and iOS devices as a spin-off within the Mana series. Following the adventures of a warrior chosen by the Mana Tree to travel multiple worlds in pursuit of a great evil, the gameplay featured the protagonist exploring different worlds based on earlier Mana e

Energy Future Holdings Corporation was an electric utility company headquartered in Energy Plaza in Downtown Dallas, Texas, United States. The majority of the company's power generation was through coal and nuclear power plants. From 1998 to 2007, the company was known as TXU Corporation until its $45 billion leveraged buyout by KKR, TPG, and Goldman Sachs Alternatives. That purchase was

Enterprise value (EV), total enterprise value (TEV), or firm value (FV) is an economic measure reflecting the market value of a business (i.e. as distinct from market price). It is a sum of claims by all claimants: creditors (secured and unsecured) and shareholders (preferred and common). Enterprise value is one of the fundamental metrics used in business valuation, financial analysis, a

Envy ratio, in finance, refers to the ratio of the price paid by investors to the price paid by the management team for their respective shares of equity.

An equity co-investment (or co-investment) is a minority investment, made directly into an operating company, alongside a financial sponsor or other private equity investor, in a leveraged buyout, recapitalization or growth capital transaction. In certain circumstances, venture capital firms may also seek co-investors.

Equity sharing is another name for shared ownership or co-ownership. It takes one property, more than one owner, and blends them to maximize profit and tax deductions. Typically, the parties find a home and buy it together as co-owners, but sometimes they join to co-own a property one of them already owns. At the end of an agreed term, they buy one another out or sell the property and sp

A family office is a privately held company that handles investment management and wealth management for a wealthy family with the goal being to effectively grow and transfer wealth across generations. The company's financial capital is the family's own wealth.

A finance lease (also known as a capital lease or a sales lease) is a type of lease in which a finance company is typically the legal owner of the asset for the duration of the lease, while the lessee has operating control over the asset and some share of the economic risks and returns from the change in its valuation.

There are several concepts of efficiency for a financial market. The most widely discussed is informational or price efficiency, which is a measure of how quickly and completely the price of a single asset reflects available information about the asset's value. Other concepts include functional/operational efficiency, which is inversely related to the costs that investors bear for maki

A financial sponsor is a private equity investment firm, particularly a private equity firm that engages in leveraged buyout transactions.

Financière Agache SA is an investment holding company based in Paris that is the controlling shareholder of Dior and LVMH. It is controlled by Agache SCA, a company owned by Bernard Arnault and his family.

The First Chicago method or venture capital method is a business valuation approach used by venture capital and private equity investors that combines elements of both a multiples-based valuation and a discounted cash flow (DCF) valuation approach.

Flora Food Group B.V. is a Dutch food company owning multiple brands of margarine, food spreads, and plant-based foods, including Flora and Blue Band. It states that it is the largest plant-based consumer packaged goods company in the world, operating in 95 countries.

A follow-on offering, also known as a follow-on public offering (FPO), is a type of public offering of stock that occurs subsequent to the company's initial public offering (IPO).

A fraudulent conveyance or fraudulent transfer is the transfer of property to another party to prevent, hinder, or delay the collection of a debt owed by or incumbent on the party making the transfer, sometimes by rendering the transferring party insolvent. It is generally treated as a civil cause of action that arises in debtor/creditor relations, typically brought by creditors or by ba

A "fund of funds" (FOF) is an investment strategy of holding a portfolio of other investment funds rather than investing directly in stocks, bonds or other securities. This type of investing is often referred to as multi-manager investment. A fund of funds may be "fettered", meaning that it invests only in funds managed by the same investment company, or "unfettered", meaning that it can

Galaxy Digital Inc., doing business as Galaxy, is an American financial services and infrastructure company headquartered in New York City. The company focuses on digital assets, cryptocurrency, blockchain infrastructure, and artificial intelligence and high-performance computing data center infrastructure. Its digital asset businesses include over-the-counter trading, lending, investmen

GK Investment Holding Group SA is a Lugano-based private equity and investment firm whose primary focus is in the healthcare Real Estate, Private Equity and Consultancy sector. The principal areas of investment interest are in Africa, Europe, and Asia.

Following is a glossary of stock market terms.

Greenshoe, or over-allotment clause, is the term commonly used to describe a special arrangement in a U.S. registered share offering, for example an initial public offering (IPO), which enables the investment bank representing the underwriters to support the share price after the offering without putting their own capital at risk. This clause is codified as a provision in the underwritin

A growth buyout (GBO) is an acquisition intended to allow an investor or holding company to capitalize on the market growth of a maturing portfolio company. Unlike growth equity, which typically involves minority ownership, a growth buyout usually involves acquiring a large or controlling stake. Because growth buyouts are typically financed with less debt than conventional leveraged buyo

Growth capital (also called expansion capital and growth equity) is a type of private equity investment, usually a minority interest, in relatively mature companies that are looking for capital to expand or restructure operations, enter new markets or finance a significant acquisition without a change of control of the business.

In corporate finance, Hamada’s equation is an equation used as a way to separate the financial risk of a levered firm from its business risk. The equation combines the Modigliani–Miller theorem with the capital asset pricing model. It is used to help determine the levered beta and, through this, the optimal capital structure of firms. It was named after Robert Hamada, the Professor of Fi

HarbourVest Partners, LLC is a private equity fund of funds and one of the largest private equity investment managers globally. The firm invests in all types of private equity funds, including venture capital and leveraged buyout funds, and also directly in operating companies.

Harold Clark Simmons (May 13, 1931 – December 29, 2013) was an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist whose banking expertise helped him develop the acquisition concept known as the leveraged buyout (LBO) to acquire various corporations. He was the owner of Contran Corporation and of Valhi, Inc., (a NYSE traded company about 90% controlled by Contran). As of 2006, he controll

HealthCap is a specialized provider of venture capital within life sciences. HealthCap invests in innovative companies with focus on therapeutics. As of 2023, HealthCap has invested in over 125 companies since inception and completed initial public offerings of more than 45 companies. HealthCap has offices in Stockholm and Lausanne.

In finance, a high-yield bond (non-investment-grade bond, speculative-grade bond, or junk bond) is a bond that is rated below investment grade by credit rating agencies. These bonds have a higher risk of default or other adverse credit events but offer higher yields than investment-grade bonds to compensate for the increased risk.

The history of private equity, venture capital, and the development of these asset classes has occurred through a series of boom-and-bust cycles since the middle of the 20th century. Within the broader private equity industry, two distinct sub-industries, leveraged buyouts and venture capital experienced growth along parallel, although interrelated tracks.

Institutional Capital Network, Inc (doing business as iCapital) is an American fintech company that provides platform solutions related to alternative investments in the private markets.

Il Fornaio is a chain of twenty (as of 2019) Italian-themed fine dining restaurants operating primarily in California (16 locations of its 20) in the United States.

Impact investing refers to investments "made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return". At its core, impact investing is about an alignment of an investor's beliefs and values with the allocation of capital to address social and/or environmental issues.

Infinity Group is a private equity fund backed by China Development Bank and Clal Industries. The head of Infinity Group is Amir Gal-Or. Infinity Group manages RMB 10 billion and 100 portfolio companies, through 17 local RMB funds throughout China.

An institutional investor is an entity that pools money to purchase securities, real property, and other investment assets or originate loans. Institutional investors include commercial banks, central banks, credit unions, government-linked companies, insurers, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, charities, hedge funds, real estate investment trusts, investment advisors, endowments, a

IPO underpricing is the increase in stock value from the initial offering price to the first-day closing price. Many believe that underpriced IPOs leave money on the table for corporations, but some believe that underpricing is inevitable. Investors state that underpricing signals high interest to the market which increases the demand. On the other hand, overpriced stocks will drop long-

Jacuzzi is an American private company that manufactures and markets hot tubs, pools, and other bath products. It is best known for the Jacuzzi hydrotherapy products. The company is headquartered in Irvine, California. It is the largest hot tub manufacturer in Europe with eight factories, the largest being in Italy.

James Caan (born Nazim Khan; 28 December 1960) is a British-Pakistani entrepreneur and television personality.

James Coulter (born December 1, 1959) is an American billionaire businessman. He is the co-founder of private equity firm TPG Inc., originally known as the Texas Pacific Group.

James Edward Hanson, Baron Hanson (20 January 1922 – 1 November 2004) was an English industrialist who built his businesses through the process of leveraged buyouts through Hanson plc. Hanson's billion-dollar empire earned him the nickname "Lord Moneybags".

Jerome Kohlberg Jr. (July 10, 1925 – July 30, 2015) was an American businessman and investor. He was an early pioneer in the private equity and leveraged buyout industries, founding private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR & Co.) and later Kohlberg & Company.

John Dorman Elliott (3 October 1941 – 23 September 2021) was an Australian businessman and state and federal president of the Liberal Party. He had also been president of the Carlton Football Club. He frequently provoked controversy due to his political affiliations, his brushes with the law, and his abrasive personal style.

Jonathan Paul Moulton (born 15 October 1950) is a British venture capitalist. He is the founder and managing partner of private equity firm Better Capital, and the former managing partner of private equity firm Alchemy Partners. He has been working in private equity since 1980. Moulton writes, broadcasts and speaks on corporate finance and financial matters. His career has also included

Kirkbi A/S is a Danish investment management company headquartered in Billund, Denmark, that serves as a family office to manage the fortune of the Kristiansen family, the current owners of the Lego Group. It owns 75% of The Lego Group, 47.5% of Merlin Entertainments, and 100% of BrainPop.

A leveraged buyout (LBO) is one company's acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money (leverage) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loans, along with the assets of the acquiring company. The use of debt, which normally has a lower cost of capital than equity, serves to reduce the o

In corporate finance, a leveraged recapitalization is a change of the company's capital structure, usually substitution of debt for equity.

Lexington Partners is an American company founded in 1994, and one of the largest managers of secondary acquisition and co-Investment funds in the world.

A liquidation preference is one of the primary economic terms of a venture finance investment in a private company. The term describes how various investors' claims on dividends or on other distributions are queued and covered. Liquidation preference establishes that certain investors receive their investment money back first before other company owners in the event the company is sold,

This is a list of ministers of the budget of France (French: Ministres du Budget), sometimes called Minister for the Budget (Ministre délégué au Budget) or Secretary of State for the Budget (Aecrétaire d'État au Budget), since the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. The officeholder works closely with the Minister of the Economy and Finance, as both ministers share the sa

Personal loans in Japan are provided by three types of providers. First, there are large, traditional banks, with a long service history. Their big advantage is the availability of loans and branches throughout the country. Loans are also provided by specialized consumer credit companies. These are often owned by large, multi-national corporations. For example, Acom, one of the leading c

Louis Elwood Wolfson (January 28, 1912 – December 30, 2007) was an American financier, a convicted felon, and one of the first modern corporate raiders, labeled by Time as such in a 1956 article. A self-made millionaire by 28, Wolfson is credited with creating the modern hostile tender offer, which laid the technical framework to the leveraged buyout. In later years, he was a major thoro

A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management and leveraged buyouts became noted phenomena of 1980s business economics and most frequently refer to leveraged transactions where managers take a company private. These transactions, while originat

In the investment advisory industry, a management fee is a periodic payment that is paid by an investment fund to the fund's investment adviser for investment and portfolio management services. Often, the fee covers not only investment advisory services, but administrative services as well. Usually, the fee is calculated as a percentage of assets under management.

Marshall S. Cogan (born 1937) is an American investor and entrepreneur and former financier and trader. Cogan was the founder of United Automotive Group, which he built into one of the largest retailers of cars and trucks in the U.S. As a private equity investor, Cogan acquired a number of businesses in the 1970s and 1980s. He was also a partner of Cogan, Berlind, Weill & Levitt an inves

Mezzanine capital is a type of financing that sits between senior debt and equity in a company's capital structure. It is typically used to fund growth, acquisitions, or buyouts. Technically, mezzanine capital can be either a debt or equity instrument with a repayment priority between senior debt and common stock equity. Mezzanine debt is subordinated debt that represents a claim on a co

Michael R. Eisenson is a managing director and co-chairman of Charlesbank Capital Partners, LLC, a private equity investment firm based in Boston and New York. Eisenson co-founded the firm in 1998 and served as its CEO until 2017. Charlesbank raised its most recent fund, Charlesbank Equity Fund IX, in 2017, with $2.75 billion of investor commitments.

MidOcean Partners, based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, is an alternative asset management firm that specializes in mid-sized private equity and alternative leveraged investments.

Minority discount is an economic concept reflecting the notion that a partial ownership interest may be worth less than its proportional share of the total business. The concept applies to equities with voting power because the size of voting position provides additional benefits or drawbacks. For example, ownership of a 51% share in the business is usually worth more than 51% of its equ

Mousse Partners is an investment management firm based in Bermuda that serves as a family office to manage the wealth of Alain and Gérard Wertheimer, the current owners of French luxury fashion house, Chanel. It is the investment division of Mousse Investments Limited (formerly Litor Limited), a Cayman Islands holding company for Chanel and its subsidiaries.

NAV (Net Asset Value) lending is a form of fund-level financing where loans are secured by the value of a private equity fund’s investments rather than the uncalled capital commitments of limited partners (LPs). NAV-based credit facilities provide liquidity to private equity funds by allowing them to borrow against the underlying portfolio. These facilities differ from subscription line

NEC Software Solutions UK is a United Kingdom–based software and technology services provider, founded in 1969.

Negative gearing is a financial leverage strategy whereby an investor borrows money to acquire an income-producing investment, knowing that the gross income generated by the investment (at least in the short term) will be less than the cost of owning and managing the investment, including depreciation and interest charged on the loan (but excluding capital repayments).

Neuromarketing is a commercial marketing communication field that applies neuropsychology to market research, studying consumers' sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective responses to marketing stimuli. The potential benefits to marketers include more efficient and effective marketing campaigns and strategies, fewer product and campaign failures, and ultimately the manipulation of the real