Publications

July 2007 (Revised March 2009)
Case

Berkshire Partners: Purchase of Rival Company (A)

Berkshire Partners, a private equity firm in Boston, was pleased with their recent investment in the Holmes Group, a home comfort consumer electronics company. The portfolio company was exceeding key financial targets and Berkshire Partners was confident that it would... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Capital Structure; Decision Choices and Conditions; Investment; Acquisition; Financial Services Industry; Boston

February 2000 (Revised April 2005)
Case

Gray Security: Building a South African Services Firm

Describes Gray Security Services, an entrepreneurial South African firm that has recently gone through a financial restructuring with the help of Brait Capital Partners, a private equity firm. Gray provides complete security services to companies in South Africa, other... View Details

Keywords: Initial Public Offering; Entrepreneurship; Equity; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Industry; South Africa

12 Jul 2018
News

In the Market for Environmental Change

Carl Ferenbach (MBA 1972) is cofounder and retired managing director of the Boston-based private equity firm Berkshire Partners and chair of the Environmental Defense Fund. In... View Details

25 Mar 2016
News

Putting Faith in a Good Education

Photos by Nancee Lewis The kind of private schools Chris Crane (MBA 1976) invests in have cement floors, no glass in the windows, cramped... View Details

Keywords: Jill Radsken; Educational Support Services; Educational Services

08 Mar 2022
Video

Professors Josh Lerner and Shai Bernstein: Complexity

Fast Answer

Challenges and Opportunities in the Restaurant Industry

private companies; information on investment firms and capital transactions; For a multimedia learning module on Capital IQ check out our View Details

29 Jun 2019
News

Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Africa

100 jobs. Many of them, specifically in Senegal, have been able to raise funding both from the public sector and also from private investors, angel investors, and VC investors.... View Details

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Porter’s Perspective: Competing in the Global Economy

modern competition; how they arise and decline; how they affect productivity, new business formation, and economic growth; and the roles both the private and the public sectors can have View Details

Keywords: Re: Michael E. Porter

19 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

Ground-Floor Opportunities for Retail in India

diversified from there. Now, as CEO and managing director of Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited, he oversees thirty-two department stores in fifteen cities. "Ordinary people are buying what the rich can afford," he said, adding... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Consumer Products; Retail

Web

Involvement in Faculty & Student Ventures | About

owned, or managed by a faculty member. These entities include all for-profit and non-profit businesses and social enterprises, as well as venture capital funds, private equity funds, hedge funds, search... View Details

March 1998
Case

Bumper Acquisition (A2), A: Confidential Information for Medallion Capital, Inc.

By: James K. Sebenius and David T. Kotchen

Located in Mundelein, IL, Thermo-Impact, Inc. is a rapidly growing, private firm that manufactures automotive bumpers. In 1995, a number of large automotive supply companies and a private equity investment firm offer to buy Thermo-Impact. The cases in this series focus... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Valuation; Negotiation Participants; Decision Making; Negotiation Process; Entrepreneurship; Negotiation Offer; Acquisition; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; Illinois

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January 2020
Case

SK Group: Social Progress Credits

By: George Serafeim, Ethan Rouen and David Freiberg

SK Group was one of the largest companies South Korea. A family-run conglomerate consisting of around 120 subsidiaries and employing more than 100,000, SK was tightly knit into the fabric of Korean society. SK viewed their future success as contingent upon the strength... View Details

February 2006 (Revised June 2007)
Case

Brazos Partners and Cheddar's Inc.

By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

Randall Fojtasek, a partner at Brazos Private Equity Partners, must decide whether to invest more money in Cheddar's restaurant chain, which the firm invested in 10 months earlier. The incremental investment would fund a real estate subsidiary that would own the... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Deal; Price; Partners and Partnerships; Management; Investment; Leadership; Business Subsidiaries; Stocks

12 Mar 2024
Blog Post

IFC India: Electric Mobility in India

a current count of 280 million 2-wheelers in India – a number projected to rise to 400 million in the next decade –, this category is responsible for the highest automotive emissions View Details

14 Feb 2022
Research & Ideas

Curiosity, Not Coding: 6 Skills Leaders Need in the Digital Age

imagine growth platforms. Build partnerships. No organization can go it alone. The COVID-19 pandemic reminds leaders of how organizational success depends on the resiliency of their ecosystems—a public sector able to provide basic... View Details

Keywords: by Linda A. Hill, Ann Le Cam, Sunand Menon, and Emily Tedards; Technology

September 2016 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Qalaa Holdings and the Egyptian Refining Company

By: Victoria Ivashina and Marc Homsy

This case follows Qalaa Holdings, a successful Egypt-based private equity firm, and gives insight into the types of investments it pursued, its growth over time, and the limited partner base it had at hand. It also allows students to consider and debate whether the... View Details

Keywords: Africa; Structuring And Financing Large Projects; Private Equity; Infrastructure; Project Finance; Emerging Markets; Financial Services Industry; Egypt; Africa