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Day in the Life: The Private Equity Deal Maker

Published: Mar 10, 2009

 Finance       
6:00 a.m.: Up and reading the presentation books drawn up by the associates the night before. Phone calls to the associates ("to wake them up") to get some changes going before the day's meetings begin.

7:30 a.m.: Picked up by the car. More e-mails and phone calls.

8:30 a.m.: At the office. Check in with the managing director for an update of the previous day's negotiations and what's planned for today.

9:00 a.m.: Meeting with the team. We'll have the updates in the presentation book done, we'll have a strategy mapped out. This is simply kind of a double check before we head over.

9:40 a.m.: In the cars and heading to the investment bank. We have a war room set up there, too, but we're only 15 minutes away, so we do a lot of work back at the office.

10:00 a.m.: First negotiating session. The target company always tends to come up with a new wrinkle over night, as do we. So we spend the first few hours going through those. Sometimes we can just call each other on our B.S. and move on, but sometimes we have to retrench and figure out what they're saying.

12:30 p.m.: Break for lunch. Hit the phones to figure out countermoves based on the morning's presentations.

1:30 p.m.: The real session. This is where stuff gets done. Today we drilled down and agreed upon a value for their major business arm, which was key. We got a lot more than they did out of it.

6:00 p.m.: Have dinner sent over. Informal chatting between the two sides over dinner.

7:00 p.m.: Wrap up the day's talks.

7:30 p.m.: Convene with the team in the war room and dole out assignments for the overnight. Make a few phone calls to key people and update the MD again.

9:00 p.m.: Call the car and go home.

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