Private Equity Investing in Emerging Markets ─ Opportunities for Value Creation

Private equity is a financing tool uniquely suited to unlocking value in and strengthening the performance of businesses in emerging market countries. Professionally managed private equity funds invest in companies of all sizes, which investors perceive as undervalued and ripe for restructuring, while private equity investors offer their portfolio companies their business expertise. These professionals have the experience and the financial incentives to be active, hands-on partners with a company's management and to strengthen long-term company performance. It is the application of this scarce non-financial, performance enhancing know-how, combined with the injection of capital that makes private equity unique and especially compelling in developing countries.

Drawing heavily on the author's almost four decades of experience as both a practitioner and academician working with private equity investors, entrepreneurs and policymakers in over 100 developing countries around the world, Private Equity Investing in Emerging Markets uses anecdotes and case studies to illustrate and reinforce the key arguments for private equity investment in emerging economies.

Roger Leeds is a Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He was founding Chairman of the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association and serves on the board of directors. Previously, he was an international finance practitioner for 25 years and held positions with a Wall Street investment bank, the International Finance Corporation, and a private equity firm. He has served on numerous boards, been published widely in his field, and is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations. He received his undergraduate degree from Columbia University and his PhD from Johns Hopkins University.