Abstract
This thesis represents a first step to understanding the phenomenon of structured finance and merchant banking, with particular focus on the PE sector. In the three chapters I tried to give an empirical explanation of some features that distinguish private equity and venture capital in the Italian capital market. In the first chapter I carried out an analysis of the possibility of reducing informational asymmetries between a PE fund and a target company, using agency theory. In the second chapter, I deepened the signaling, with an in-depth analysis of the deal's selection of venture capitalist. In the third chapter I analyzed the performance of a sample of equity-backed companies, comparing it with a sample of controls composed by a comparable companies, in order to compare their different financial results. The research proposal that can represent the topics of the PhD thesis is linked to the scouting or deal flow, a stage of activity potentially able to determine the success of the investment. The aim of this research is to create a theoretical and empirical basis on which to develop future work. In particular, I aimed to reduce the information gap that is created in the screening of an investment opportunity by an investor in venture capital and private equity. Although this study is a small part in the framework of the reference market, there is a possibility to expand it with longitudinal studies and historical series. The main limitations of private equity research are associated with the difficulty of obtaining more financial and qualitative data. It is difficult to access some data such as company beta and cash flows. In addition, a further step to investigate the features of the PE would be to know the features of unfinanced deals, to understand the real potential of PE in our country. Finally, the methodology used in this paper is quantitative, and the same data can be analyzed with qualitative analysis in order to emphasize some features such as the increase in value in the PE. This study, as an exploratory nature, could be an opportunity for future research, both in terms of developing theory and methodological insights.