Alternative Investments Conference - London School of Economics

25 January 2010 | Joint Seminar | London, UK

Student Report following the Alternative Investment Conference by Yash Gupta

The Alternative Investments Conference, the world's largest student-run conference on private equity and hedge funds, took place last month in the heart of Mayfair, London. The conference organised by students at the London School of Economics, received over 2200 students applying for a place from top universities around the globe.  The delegates travelled from as far as Australia and California to catch a glimpse of industry leaders talk exclusively to students. The opportunity to be able to learn from the industry's best such as David Rubenstein (Co-founder of The Carlyle Group) and James Chanos (Founder of Kynikos Associates) proved difficult to resist.

The conference started with a keynote by James Chanos, on the ‘China Syndrome'. The presentation covering his investment thesis created a interesting thought provoking atmosphere, detailing how China's overcapacity in real-estate has led to a bubble. Other speakers on the hedge-fund day focused on equally imperative issues, including Randall Dillard, the co-founder of Liongate Capital Management, who explained the real risks to the Alternative Investments Industry were centred on more individual business risks rather than market performance. While Liongate escaped the consequences of the Madoff scandal last year, he emphasised the changing perspectives of managers into ensuring independent auditors of all companies and funds that were invested in. Ultimately the Shakespearean quote ‘Bubble bubble - Toil and trouble' was probably not initially intended in Macbeth to describe the history of the current financial turmoil, but served as a timely metaphor to show the real risks that should have been foreseen. The panel ‘The search for true Alpha' was also interesting and provocative. Speakers mentioned how funds have altered back towards the fundamentals by comparing the value added to a fund by the direct fund manager through both innate ability as well as hard work. Others discussed the small stock and large stock factor, and discussing if calculating alpha and beta is too vague to be useful.

The next day, started with a personal reflection on the industry by Sir Deryck Maughan, Chairman of KKR Asia. His thought-provoking speech raised more questions than it answered, and acted as a natural flow into the Emerging Markets panel. The panellists continued with the theme of the re-emergence of the industry. They discussed topics from the four cornerstones of the developing world, namely China & Emerging Asia, Sub Saharan Africa, Brazil and Central & Eastern Europe. Their stimulating discussion explained that the buyout industry was still alive and growing in these markets, but required an amended model to be successful.

The Outlook for Private Equity panel also comprised of the leaders of the industry in Europe, including senior executives from Goldman Sachs, J. P. Morgan and Blackstone.  Current affairs were discussed in depth, including President Obama's proposal to introduce the Volcker rule.  The panel unanimously agreed that current policy thought was more politically charged than should be, to try to win voters solely by implementing popular initiatives in time for elections like the General Election in the UK this May. But what happened during David Rubenstein's headline keynote, I hear you ask? His keynote left students inspired and uplifted, providing an optimistic outlook for the Private Equity industry and explaining why it would be a more rewarding industry to work in than any that their mothers might prefer.

***********************************************

Topic

"Hedge Fund Day"

Organizing Committee

The Alternative Investments Conference is jointly organised by the LSE Private Equity Society and LSE Financial Markets Group, and will enter into its fourth year in 2010.

The Wall Street Journal Europe Future Leadership Institute

Media Partner

How to Attend ?

All seats via The WSJE Future Leadership Institute are currently reserved.

Introduction

Since its foundation in 2007, the AIC has grown to become the world's largest student organised conference on private equity and hedge funds. Attracting industry leaders and students from as far afield as China and California, the Conference is a unique forum for interaction and learning. Competition for a seat at the conference is fierce and we are unable to accommodate everyone due to logistical constraints: in 2009 we received 1600 applications for only 350 seats.

Planning begins many months before the event itself, and we are most grateful to all of our speakers and sponsors, new and returning, without whom the event would not be possible. We would also like to thank Team AIC for their continued enthusiasm and support for the Conference.

We hope that you will emerge from the Conference with both a holistic view of the hedge fund and private equity industries and also with a network of like-minded students from around the world.

Program

Back to past events listing