The Buyout of America

I devoured Josh Kosman’s “The Buyout of America” the day after Thanksgiving, and also took the time to listen to an audio replay of his November 16th interview with Terry Gross of WHYY’s Fresh Air.

Mr. Kosman lays out a broad indictment of private equity firms, making a case that they run down the companies they acquire for debt, with exorbitant price increases, poor customer service due to staff reductions and systematic underinvestment.

A few surprising, and unpleasant, discoveries from the book included:

• That four of the past eight Treasury Secretaries joined the Private Equity Industry: James Baker (Carlyle), Nicholas Brady (Darby), Paul O’Neill (Blackstone) and John Snow (Cerberus), giving the industry significant influence in Washington DC.

• The Boston Consulting Group predicted (in December 2008) that “almost 50 percent of PE-owned companies would probably default on their debt by the end of 2011.”

• The degree to which private equity firms have been able to “create a deal-making system in which they reap profits while assuming almost no risk.”  The risk is shouldered by investors, including public pension funds.

One thing that bothered me about the book was how Kosman tarred the entire private equity industry indiscriminately, without even a hint that some private equity firms are operating with higher concern for how the companies they acquire ultimately fare, after they have carved out their special dividends and management fees.

My personal experience as part of a team doing due diligence for a NYC-based private equity firm was that they seemed strongly focused on developing strategies that would govern the expansion of the acquired firm into new markets and new product categories, creating value by building up, not tearing down the business.