Ever since I watched the movie 'Barbarians at the gate,' I was hooked to Private Equity. The world of deal-making and value creation fascinates me; Fundraising, Investing, Monitoring, Exiting. It was the time of summer placements at our Kampus. The Rohatyn Group, an emerging market focused PE firm based out of New York, had come to recruit for India offices. The recruitment process was arduous; a workshop for shortlisted candidates, written test, informal interaction with the MD, and finally, the personal interview. The verdict: Selected!
Post placements, I continued to stay in touch with our alumni at the firm and learned as much as I could under their direction. I learned about the Power and Infrastructure sectors, the Private Equity process, and subscribed to several PE reports by IVCA and EMPEA. Everything was going smoothly until the black swan event happened; I desperately hoped that somehow I would get to work at the Mumbai office. However, the team ensured that even under remote working conditions, the learning experience never took a hit.
Projects & Assignments
Our pre-internship assignment was to model the COVID outbreak in India. I learned about epidemiology concepts and got acquainted with the 'SIR' model. When I looked at the final numbers, I hoped against hope that it would not come to fruition. However, the highly contagious virus didn't care about my feelings and took the course.
I got to work on two projects during the internship, both in the realm of portfolio monitoring. First, I worked on evaluating and optimizing the wind forecasting model for a renewable energy company in the portfolio. The second project involved optimizing the sales strategy of another portfolio company in the power sector. There was also an assignment on a portfolio company in the toll-road sector. Analyzing the methodology of GDP estimation gave me insights into the macroeconomic factors involved. The work was highly statistical and analytical in nature, and I got to learn novel concepts in the domain.
The projects involved constant feedback from the team. During team presentations, we received critical inputs, which ensured that we proceeded in the right direction. Everyone at the firm was open to giving feedback and mentoring via one-on-one calls, despite their busy schedules.
The team calls gave me an insight into the monitoring of other portfolio companies. The team ensured prioritizing learning and conducted sessions on the PE process, from fundraising to exit. In these sessions, I got to learn about the investment process and valuation. Most importantly, I learned how to critically analyze investments from the team's vast experience.
What it takes
Steve Schwarzman's autobiography 'What It Takes' serves as an appetizer to know about the necessary skills to excel in PE. The first-hand experience gained during the internship helped me in putting several of the key learnings into action. PE firms require candidates who are driven, highly analytical and adapt to any situation. You continuously face business problems that are open-ended and have to rely on these traits to overcome them. Sometimes, you need to dig deep into a challenge to find a solution; hence sector expertise is desired. It all boils down to this - creating value.
I want to conclude by thanking TRG India team for providing an amazing learning experience, despite the uncertain market environment and work-from-home constraints. The whole experience was a roller-coaster ride, where sometimes you don't know if you can find the perfect solution. However, the team was always there to guide me whenever I needed it.
