A private equity investment in which the investor contributes only capital - and not business know-how or management involvement - to the investee company.

A private equity investment in which the investor adds value by contributing capital, management advice and personal involvement.

Prospective purchasers in a public offering of securities, listed in the book maintained by the lead managing underwriter, who are considered very likely to actually buy such securities.

Sudden collapse of the economy.

A transaction that reduces the risk of an investment.

Typically closed investment funds located in non-regulated financial centres and which carry out transactions that other funds are not authorized to execute, i. e. short sales, purchase of securities on credit, large use of derivatives.

An investment ( shares, stocks, etc.) showing an exceptional increase in value.

A letter from an investment bank indicating that it is highly confident that it will be able to raise financing for a transaction without legally obligating itself to do so.

Moving average of the number of stocks that reach new highs and lows each day, used as a technical analysis tool for measuring the strength of the overall market.

A curve which shows the evolution of the earnings of a company poised for rapid growth. Also used to describe the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of a Private Equity fund as it rises from negative to positive.
See also Internal Rate of Retuns and J-Curve.

A contractual condition in which money is withheld until a specified event occurs.

A corporation that owns the securities of another, in most cases with voting control.

The Horizon Internal Rate of Return (IRR) allows for an indication of performance trends in the industry.
It is based on a fund's net asset value (NAV) at the beginning of the period as an initial cash outflow and the residual value at the end of the period as the terminal cash flow.
The IRR is calculated using those values plus any cash actually received into or paid by the fund from or to investors in the defined time period (i.e. horizon). See also Internal Rate of Return.

In private equity funds the return on investment which the manager must achieve before he is entitled to a share of the profit.
See also Catch-up and Internal Rate of Return (IRR).