eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

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RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

This study addresses the lack of comprehensive research on the economic and societal impact of private equity in Europe and especially in Finland. The thesis has two-fold research objective; (1.) to build a solid understanding on how the societal and economic impact can be assessed in Finland based on existing literature and (2.) to empirically examine what can we say about the firm-level societal and economic impact of the investing activities of the members of Finnish Venture Capital Association in Finland.

DATA

This study uses a unique hand collected dataset on the companies that have received their first-ever private equity investment from a member of Finnish Venture Capital Association in 2002-2004. The sample includes all Finnish companies (191) that have received a first-ever private equity investment by a member of FVCA during this period. Data is collected from the National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland databases for the investment year and the three following years and it includes the following firm-level measures: sales, number of employees, total assets and intangible assets, corporate taxes and gross margin. Based on NBPR data growth figures can be calculated for 146 companies of the sample (77%).

The control group is collected by matching the profile of the private equity financed companies to Finnish companies that did not receive private equity financing. Main line of operations, sales and registration date to the trade register are used for matching.

RESEARCH RESULTS

The growth of sales and personnel of the PE-funded companies in Finland is faster than the growth of non-PE-funded companies based on comparative statistical analysis and basic OLS regression models. The results of the OLS regression models also suggest an association between PE-funding and faster intangible assets and total assets growth.

The faster growth of the PE-financed companies firm-level measures may be a result of the VCs being able to select portfolio companies that have comparatively larger growth potential instead of the true added value VCs are often argued to supply. Also both of these sources may apply, but we cannot fully reliably identify the actual value adding impact separated from the VC target selection effects.

The comparative growth of sales, personnel, intangible assets and total assets are stronger for PE-funded companies operating in high-tech industries, especially within knowledge intensive services sector, and/or receiving PE-funding in seed investment stage.