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Economics of private equity (PE). Empirical evidence on Italian manufacturing firms resorting to internal equity only to finance investments with positive NPV. Normative framework providing guidelines on how their entrepreneurial model (governance, gearing, growth) would be favourably influenced by conventional PE actions. Policy recommendations on how to expedite PE ownership expansion in Italy and other European countries.

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1. The Economics of Private Equity: Designing and Structuring the Management Company.- 2. Who are Private Equity Targets?.- 3. Survey on Private Equity Investment Targeting in Italy.- 4. A Private Equity Deal: the Case of Invisible Ink.- 5. Conclusions.

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Francesco Baldi holds a M.Sc. in Finance from the University of Rome "La Sapienza", a M.Sc. in Applied Econometrics from the School of Economics and Finance of the Italian Ministry of Treasury and a Ph.D. in Business Economics from the University of Rome III. He has been a Chazen Visiting Scholar at the Columbia Business School and the MIT Sloan School of Management having received the 2006 "Fondazione IRI" scholarship in management studies. He has an extensive professional experience in the field of finance and is the author of articles published in international and Italian journals. He is an Adjunct Professor of Corporate Finance at the Department of Business and Management of LUISS Guido Carli University.

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