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There are significant returns to be made from private equity, infrastructure, real estate and other illiquid investments, but a competitive strategy is essential for investment success and for meeting objectives. This book takes readers through all the considerations of planning and implementing an investment strategy in illiquid investments.

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1. Introduction 2. A Neo-Classical Asset Class 3. The ´Repair-Shop of Capitalism´ 4. Strategy Challenges 5. Strategic Asset Allocation 6. The Sky is Not the Limit 7. The Limited Partnership as Part of Humanity´s DNA 8. Intermediation 9. Economics of Private Equity Firms 10. Objectives 11. Performance Persistence 12. Nobody knows Anything 13. Spreading Risks - Thickly and Thinly 14. Private Equity Risk 15. Performance Measurement 16. The Galapagos Islands of Finance 17. The Locust and the Deep Blue Sea 18. Intelligence 19. Spreading Risks - Part II 20. Open-Ended Relationships 21. Hard and Soft Power 22. Real Options 23. No Plan Survives... 24. The Heavy Hand of Regulation 25. Private Equity Unchained

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´Based on his wealth of knowledge and experience, Thomas Meyer provides important insights into the private equity business and valuable advice to anyone involved in it. He describes how private equity is an engine of innovation and how the partnership model evolved as a central component of it. He cautions against some of the regulatory and valuation practices that are currently employed in the sector.´

Colin Mayer, Peter Moores Professor of Management Studies, Said Business School, University of Oxford, author of "Firm Commitment: Why the Corporation is Failing Us and How to Restore Trust in It"

´There is not much work on a subject as arcane as private equity asset management that can be read by both specialists and amateurs with the same pleasure of discovery or re-discovery. Private Equity Unchained succeeds in this feat by dissecting the subject in depth, but in my view, also by re-introducing the ´human factor´ in its perspective of the Private Equity investment landscape. This fresh approach illustrates the dimensions of perpetual change, the biological foundations of human behavior and the uncertainty that goes with them.´

Georges Sudarskis, Founder and Chairman, Sudarskis & Partners (UAE) and former Chief Investment Officer, Private Equities, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority

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