Private Equity market has been experiencing four to five years an unprecedented dynamism. The figures for 2006 speak for themselves:
* 71% growth in business volume in 2006
* 71 billion of funds raised in 2006 or 22% over 2005
* 208 LBOs carried out in France in 2006, with two thirds of companies less than 100M € turnover,
* 1.5 million people now work for a company in France came under LBO, 9 to 10% of private sector employees,
Private equity is one of the five main areas of activity of the market says private equity (intervention in the capital of unlisted companies generally to achieve horizon 3-10 years of strong capital gains), other activities are:
* Seed capital (or seed money) which represents the first stage since it is for investment projects still in its infancy, funded in order to develop a technology still in R & D to enable to go forward to a potential market,
* Venture Capital, also known as the Venture Capital (VC), which translates into a capital in innovative companies, being in the early stages of development and which have a high growth potential but also a very high risk,
* Capital development which is a capital contribution in companies with strong growth but at a more advanced level of development that target companies for venture capital, they are usually companies who have strong financing needs through equity,
* Capital reversal of investing in troubled companies to put in place a recovery plan.
