IIM-A students to host venture capital, private equity conference

At a time when liquidity has become more of a bane for start-ups as well as firms looking for expansion, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) is organising a first-of-its-kind Venture Capital and Private Equity Conference on February 6 and 7, 2009.

Aimed at bringing together industry experts, practitioners, advisors, academicians and students in order to identify and addres key issues and trends relevant to venture capitalists, the conference is a student initiative of Leverage - the Venture Capital and Private Equity club of IIM-A in association with the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at IIM-A.

The central theme for the first edition of the conference - Leverage 2009 - is 'Venture Capital and Private Equity: Investing and Managing Portfolios in Distrissed Times'.

"With the regime of low interest rates, rapid economic growth, easy leverage and rising portfolio company valuations ceasing to exist, tough economic times lie ahead. The market sentiments are at an all time low and this crisis of investor confidence has forced capital markets to come face to face with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

This entire economic conundrum is going to have far reaching implications for the private equity and the venture capital industry. The summit will take a closer look at these implications by focusing on the central theme," said Vijay Mani, student co-ordinator for the event, which is being organised by students of Post Graduate Program in Management (PGP) and Post Graduate Program in Management for Executives (PGPX).

The two day summit will feature speaker sessions, workshops and panel discussions, among other things. The event is being guided by an adivsory committee comprising Ajay Pandey, chairperson of PGP at IIM-A, Jayanth Varma, faculty member at IIM-A and Anil Gupta, faculty member at IIM-A.

"The entire VC and PE sector will be analysed not only from the investors’ perspective but also from the perspective of different industries that benefit from the financing and guidance provided by the VC & PE sector. Special emphasis will be laid on seeing the impact and effectiveness of the VC and PE sector in emerging economies like India, especially in the light of the current credit squeeze.

Questions like whether PEs are all about financial engineering or do they create value in the portfolio companies and does the current scenario warrant a paradigm shift in the way the PE and VC firms will function, will be posed and deliberated," added Mani.