Greg Brown

Research Director, IPC; Professor of Finance, Sarah Graham Kenan Distinguished Scholar, University of North Carolina, Kenan-Flagler Business School
Email: gregwbrown@unc.edu

Gregory Brown is the Director of the Frank H. Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, Research Director of the Institute for Private Capital, and Sarah Graham Kenan Distinguished Scholar of Finance at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His areas of study include private investment funds, financial risk management, and hedging strategies.

Prior to joining UNC Kenan-Flagler, he worked at the Board of Governors of Federal Reserve System in the Division of Research and Statistics.

Prof. Brown received a BS in physics and economics from Duke University and a PhD in finance from the University of Texas at Austin.

Related Publications

Performance Analysis and Attribution with Alternative Investments

This white paper provides a summary of existing methods and current research on performance analysis and attribution for complex portfolios that include investments such as hedge funds and private investment funds. We summarize the main challenges of analyzing portfolios with illiquid assets and provide updated analysis for several important asset classes.
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Capital Structure and Leverage in Private Equity Buyouts

A new study designed to shed light on the various kinds of debt now used to finance buyout transactions, and to provide some current insights on the profitability and leverage of such transactions using newly available data. Authors: Greg Brown (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Robert Harris (University of Virginia), and Shawn Munday (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).
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How Do Financial Expertise and Networks Affect Investing? Evidence from University Endowments

We examine the links between human capital and endowment investing. Harnessing detailed information on university endowments, we find that higher asset allocations to alternative assets accompany higher levels of human capital in the endowment’s investment process. Moreover, high levels of human capital are linked to larger returns, even on a risk-adjusted basis.
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Private Investments in Diversified Portfolios

We study the impact of including private investment funds into diversified portfolios that otherwise hold only public stocks and bonds. Our analysis uses a large sample of 3,380 U.S. buyout, venture capital, and real estate funds to simulate portfolios from 1987 to 2018 that substitute part of the public equity allocation with private funds.
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Debt and Leverage in Private Equity: A Survey of Existing Results and New Findings

This paper examines leverage and debt financing in the private equity buyout market. We provide an overview of how debt is utilized in buyout investment structures and a review of existing theoretical and empirical academic literature. The analysis also includes results from new data sources with information on deal structure and performance since the global financial crisis (GFC). We document that leverage ratios (Net Debt / EBITDA) have increased substantially in recent years and the increase is even more pronounced after unwinding EBITDA “adjustments” which have become increasingly large.
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Related News

Can Investors Time Their Exposure to Private Equity?

Private equity markets are highly cyclical. The aggregate amount of capital committed to the sector varies substantially from peak to trough, and many have observed that periods of high fundraising activity are followed by periods of low absolute performance for the asset class (see Harris, Jenkinson, and Kaplan, among others). This raises an important question: is it possible to market-time the allocations to private equity to avoid the cyclicality of performance?
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Business and Economic Impact of COVID-19

To help separate fact from fiction and legitimate concern from panic, the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise and UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School convened six top faculty researchers to discuss the likely effects of the pandemic on business and the economy.
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Have Private Equity Returns Really Declined?

Kenan Institute Executive Director Greg Brown and University of Chicago Booth School of Business Professor Steve Kaplan have co-authored a new white paper assembling the most current, comprehensive performance data on U.S. private equity buyout funds available. Contrary to some recent articles, this research shows U.S. buyouts have consistently outperformed public markets in the post-crisis era.
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