Incentivierung des Managements bei Unternehmenskäufen/Buy-Outs mit Private Equity Investoren -eine empirische Untersuchung

Since years, incentives for the management have become a standard upon acquisitions of companies byPrivate Equity Investors – so-called Buy-Outs. However, until this date there are no empirical studies availableon the arrangements of management participations and potential conflicts of interest especially onoccasion of sales from one Private Equity Investor to another – so-called Secondary Buy-Outs. This presentstudy is based on a survey among Private Equity Investors and Management Teams in companies controlledby Private Equity Investors. It shows a high degree of sensibility of all parties concerned for theissue of incentives and the potential conflict of interest involved with it. It also showed that market standardsfor management incentives have developed in the meantime. In practice, the instrument to preventconflicts is therefore the transparency of the transaction. The only way to prevent criminal and civil consequences(damages) for the managers involved, as well as obstructing or even frustrating the process as awhole, is an open and transparent communication about the selling process and possible concepts of incentivesbetween all parties concerned, i.e. seller, buyer and the management involved. Despite the frequencyof such transactions there are – until today – no market standards or guide lines for this necessary transparency.The present study intends to create initial groundwork for this.