IFC and Emerging Market Private Equity
This case describes the history of the International Finance Corporation’s Private Equity Investment Funds Group, which invests the IFC’s capital in private equity funds located in Emerging and Frontier Market countries. The IFC began investing in private equity in the 1980s and 1990s, and in the early 2000s formalized the practice. The case follows the group’s chief investment officer, David Wilton, who examines the IFC’s private equity portfolio of the late 1990s and considers questions of what factors drive the growth of a healthy private equity industry, how the IFC has helped develop emerging and frontier market private equity, and how the group should invest in the future.
Learning Objective
The case is designed to help students gain a better understanding of the private equity industry as it is practiced in emerging and frontier markets, illustrate the factors necessary for financial market development, and spur discussion on the most appropriate and effective roles for the IFC and other Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) in the private equity industry.