Poll Results: ‘Growth Capital’ Could Be Industry’s Name
The votes are in, and “growth capital” is the moniker that peHUB readers would choose to replace “private equity” as the name of the industry.
More than two in five respondents picked that PR-flavored choice, with the old-school “leveraged buyouts” landing in second place in our poll. You can see in the chart below where our other options scored.
We were inspired to undertake this exercise after the Blackstone Group’s media call in conjunction with its fourth quarter earnings. When the question came up whether the industry could improve its image by changing its name, Tony James mused that “clarity equity” might be a good choice, implying that private equity ownership can bring clarity to portfolio companies’ priorities, or something.
Here are the results:
In addition, several loyal readers voiced support for retaining the “private equity” name, while others had their own ideas about a name for the industry, or other observations about the question in general:
private capital
leveraged buyouts they will always be, growth capital fits
Active Equity
Bankruptcy Brothers LLP!
emancipative capital
expansion capital sounds more correct
Clarity Equity sounds like a second-rate middle market firm
Investment Firm Equity
pension fund capital
Value Funding
strip and flip
pricey equity
Private Capital
no change, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”
Financial Partner
No idea: “PE” could mean “Professional Engineer”, “Price to Earnings”, “Pulmonary Embolism”, or “Premature Ejaculation.” I prefer unambiguous clarity.
Steve Bills is a senior editor at Buyouts Magazine. Any opinions expressed here are entirely his own. Follow him on Twitter @Steve_Bills. Follow Buyouts tweets @Buyouts. For information on how to subscribe, contact Greg Winterton at [email protected].
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Luisa Beltran said on February 12, 2013
But doesn’t growth capital mean more early stage investments?
rt said on February 12, 2013
seems like a lot of confusion going around. while “growth capital” is a form of private equity, not all private equity is necessarily growth capital. the same is true for leverage buyouts or venture capital. private equity is a spectrum of investment activities.
if people within – or at least interested in – the industry can’t seem to keep these basics straight, then it’s no wonder that the average american has no idea what private equity really is or does…other than “destroy” jobs.
Steve Bills said on February 15, 2013
When I was growing up in Georgia, we used to have trailer parks. Then the guys who produced the trailers decided they had a bad reputation and renamed the products “mobile homes.” That didn’t help, so they switched to “manufactured housing.” Only when they improved the quality of their products did they get past the bad PR associated with the name. Debates like this one remind me of that.