London Business School Coller Institute of Private Equity

COLLER PRIZE AWARDS EVENING 2011

16 November 2011

The Coller Institute of Private Equity at the London Business School hosted the Coller Prize awards evening on 2 November. The Coller Prize recognises the best achievements in student research in PE and VC. We were very proud to have Tim Parker, industrial partner, CVC Capital Partners as our keynote speaker for the evening.

This Coller Prize includes the PhD category which is open to PhD students globally. This year, submissions were received from 18 academic institutions, a great result considering the PhD Prize is only into its second year. Academic papers explored topics ranging from macroeconomic policies to promote VCs, factors influencing the premium paid by strategic investors to governance structures in PE.

This year’s PhD category was won by Shai Bernstein of Harvard University for “Do Equity Markets Affect Innovation? Evidence from Initial Public Offerings.” Shai’s paper looks at whether companies which go public become less innovative after the IPO, using some creative methodologies to adjust for the fact that companies tend to go public after a major innovation. He looks specifically at VC backed firms which go public.

The runner-up in the PhD category was Vineet Bhagwat of Northwestern University for “Manager Networks and Success of Venture Capital Syndications.” This paper examines the role of educational ties in VC syndication partnership and early stage investment.

The Masters’ Prize continues to be extremely competitive. This year, submissions covered a diverse range of topics and scenarios including best practices in deal origination, a fund raising in west Africa, an alliance between a corporate and a PE fund and the structuring and managing external technology investments.

Crispin Payne, partner, Coller Capital presented the winner’s prize to Lode Van Laere and Matthias Vandepitte for “SunRay Renewable Energy, Private Equity in the Sunshine.” This case study recounts the story of the spectacular growth of SunRay, an entrepreneurial venture focused on solar energy projects. Since its foundation, the firm attracted the interest of the private equity firm, Denham Capital and was subsequently bought out by Sunpower, an international supplier of solar power technology for a sum of almost US$300 million, only 3 years after the company was founded.

The runner-up prize went to Marina Blinova and Yervand Sarkisyan for “Alliance of a Corporate with a Private Equity Fund.” This paper studies a highly innovative JV which involves a private equity firm  and a financially constrained corporate working together on acquisition opportunities.

Thanks to Katharine Campbell, Cambridge Associates for her assistance in judging the Masters’ Prize.

Please refer to http://www.collerinstitute.com/Coller_Prize to download the presentations from this year’s winner and runner-ups.

Please also refer to Ann Iveson’s blog at http://www.collerinstitute.com/Blogs/Show/5/135 for further coverage of Tim Parker’s speech.

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