The title of a new book by a private equity insider left me anticipating a juicy tell-all about the inner workings of the industry." is the work of Sachin Khajuria, a former partner at Apollo Global, one of the handful of largest private equity firms in the world.The term"Two and Twenty" refers to the mechanism by which the partners of private equity firms make their money.
With the explosion in the size of the sector over the past decade — managing almost $10 trillion in assets as of last year and growing — private equity has increasingly drawn the ire of legislators, regulators, and crusading journalists. The time is right for a book to provide a thoughtful counternarrative defending the industry that puts private equity in proper context.
The failure to ground the book in actual data would not be the end of the world if Khajuria delivered a revealing insider account that supported his perspective.In lieu of convincing anecdotes from his actual experience, we are treated to"fictitious sketches," and told that at least some, but not all, of these"are inspired by real-life deals and events." Where so inspired,"certain details" have been masked or changed.
On the other hand, the sketches often reinforce many of the more negative preconceptions about private equity practices. A company founder facing a crisis is romanced by the firm, but once he takes their money"the old man will be left on the side of the road if he is not on board" with their plans.