Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered
Since I am from the PE industry, I felt I have to say something.
1) PE is a small industry in Singapore, and the people hiring are mainly the banks, family funds, government funds (like GIC, Temasek) and a few institutions. I am excluding the funds of funds from this. By 'small' I mean the number of prospective employers and not necessarily the fund size they are managing.
2) story of Army Captain making the switch to PE directly does seem implausible as I definitely would not hire someone straight from the Army. Unless of course, he joins his family fund or he took an MBA from Harvard and had some internship before making the switch. Even so, at best he joins as an associate.
back on the topic on making transition to private sector. I worked in a statutory board for 5 years but managed to switch to an investment related role under one of the government holdings for another 5 years. In between, I took 2 years off to do an MBA in Stanford before joining the private sector in the PE industry. First based in HK and now in China.
I hope that helps. |
Continuing from my above comments and looking at the follow-up, my humble views as follows:
1) to the IT engineer that claims that there are many PE firms in Singapore, you are partially right. Anyone can invest in private companies, pre-IPO deals or just tag along a lead investor, but doesn't make one a PE firm. It simply makes private equity an asset class in the entire portfolio.
2) to the guy/gal that says that there is difference between PE firm and asset management companies, I agree with him or her.
3) a PE firm is one where the entire fund is dedicated to Private Equity. Partners take active role (which include board positions) in the deals they invest and take it public or exit via trade sale.
4) very few firms can survive by taking on one asset class.
5) family foundations or a few rich individuals can come together with a few hundred million to form a fund. But most of them take on a portfolio approach and spread their investment across various asset classes. They are fund managers and they definitely will not take board positions in several companies. Their private equity are at most passive. Again, these are not PE firms.