Qual e' l'impatto degli investimenti di Private Equity sulle performance economiche e sulla crescita delle imprese in un'economia locale?

This paper analyzes and measures company performance due to private equity investments in a local economy. Our research aim was to explore in detail whether private equity investments impact profitability variables, and enable businesses to grow and become more efficient. For this purpose, a database of unlisted private equity backed companies in Italy was created. The analysis was conducted creating a Probit model in order to test the statistical significance of some variables designed to measure the impact of private equity on target companies. Our analysis suggests that private equity investments have, on average, a positive effect on firm profitability and company growth. The performance of private equity backed companies is higher in more cases than that of firms without private equity backing in the second year after the deal. Private equity investments lead to growth in EBITDA and have positive effects also on equity and on the number of employees. However, the effects on profits are mostly negative, while effects on sales are ambiguous.