A Survey of Private Equity Investments in Kenya

Abstract

Private equity investments in the recent past have been very strong and using leverage to make deals has accelerated sharply as well in both developed and emerging economies. Therefore, private equity is a suitable alternative in financing organizations at their various stages of growth. Hence, this study uses an exploratory approach to establish the extent to which private equity investments are adopted by firms, the forms of private equity mostly applicable and the exit strategies of private equity funds. Primary data was collected using a questionnaire as the main primary data collection tool. The findings show that banks and development financial institutions are the top investors in private equity funds and large corporate companies are the top clients in adoption of private equity followed by SMEs while listed companies are the lowest adopters of private equity.

Key words: Private equity, venture capital, private equity investments, exit strategies.