PitchBook in WRDS

Penn researchers have access to PitchBook, a popular private capital markets resource, via its native interface. However, Individual users are subject to download limits of 10 daily/25 monthly rows of company, deal, or fund data, as well as 10 daily/25 monthly rows of people data. For researchers needing more downloads, Wharton Research Data Services, or WRDS, offers PitchBook private equity, venture capital, and additional private placements data.

PitchBook data available in WRDS covers all aspects of private capital raising, featuring more than 1.6 million deals, 3 million companies including more than 660,000 private companies, 31,000 funds, and 300,000 investors. Deals provide a transaction-level view, fund data focuses on each fund held by an investment firm, and the company and investor data is presented at the business entity level. Though much of the data in PitchBook reflects only the most recent update available, also referred to as “header” data, more comprehensive data begins in the late 1990s/early 2000s, with 1% of historical coverage prior to 1992 increasing to 5% by 2000 and 10% by 2004. WRDS is developing snapshot integration that will begin to create a “history” of PitchBook header data.

Datasets from PitchBook are organized on the WRDS platform as follows: Venture Capital North America, Venture Capital Rest of World, Private Equity North America, Private Equity Rest of World, Other Data North America, and Other Data Rest of World. Within each dataset, the following queries are available: Company, Deal, Fund, and Investor. Company variables include ticker and Central Index Key (CIK) identifiers, industry descriptions and codes, and financing details. Deal variables include dates of deal announcement and completion, amount of capital invested, deal status, percentage of stake acquired, transaction categorization, detailed transaction summary, and valuation measures. If applicable, IPO details are available. CEO biographies and education summaries are also retrieved through a Deal query.

Variables in the Fund query include fund preferences, a breakout table of the fund’s direct investments, and whether the fund received investment capital from a Small Business Investment Company, a privately owned and managed investment fund licensed and regulated by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Investor query variables include investor and summary-level fund details, investment activity, and aspects of investor targets.

In addition to the four primary queries, there are 15 “relation” queries, each focusing on two categories of variables. Researchers interested in a list of a particular company’s competitors will be interested in the Company Competitor Relation query, while those examining deals entered into by certain investors will find the Deal Investor Relation query useful. There are even relation queries for deals and their tranches and deals and their beneficiaries.

From a query page, use the Data Preview tab to view the first ten rows of data for selected variables and conditional statements from the chosen data table. From the Data Preview page, the first 1,000 rows of data can be downloaded directly in xslx, api, or json format. Alternatively, click the Access All Data button on the Data Preview page to open SAS/Studio at WRDS, a web-based version of SAS, to access all data.

PitchBook documentation includes a spec file containing variable definitions, comments, and sample data. The WRDS Overview of Pitchbook page features a visual representation of PitchBook dataset organization, database usage notes, and guidance for linking PitchBook data to other datasets.  

Whether you want to track company growth, explore company financing or deals, or investigate investors, consider using PitchBook in WRDS. Contact Lippincott Library for assistance.

Need a Lyft?: The Market for Ride-Sharing Apps

So you’ve heard about Uber’s latest round of VC funding or Lyft’s expansion into a new city, (or the latest scandal Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has caused), and you want to know more about the market for ride-sharing apps and the companies running them. With 93% of millennials saying they plan to continue using Uber despite the company’s recent bad press, these companies aren’t going anywhere.

Lippincott Library subscribes to databases that offer statistics, information about VC funding, market share, and user demographics for the companies operating in this market. As you search, note that databases often use different terminology to describe this market. Try searching ride-sharing, ride-hailing, car-sharing, and sharing economy to find information about this market.

PrivCo offers excellent coverage of Uber, Lyft, and other ride-sharing companies. Their company profiles include a company description, company financials, sources of funding, a list of investors, competitors in that market, and news and analysis about the company. While it can be tough to find financial information on startup companies like Uber and Lyft, PrivCo offers relatively comprehensive financial information for each company it profiles. (Note: You will need to set up an account based on your Penn email to access PrivCo.)

eMarketer also provides great coverage of Uber and other ride-sharing companies, offering a variety of statistics, narrative reports, and news stories. From a report on “What Lyft’s Funding, and Uber’s Struggles, Mean for the Sharing Economy” to statistics on why consumers use ride-sharing services or which apps they use most often,  eMarketer is a good resource to use. Try searching Uber,  Lyft, ride sharing, and ride hailing to find more information.

Thomson ONE has some useful analyst reports on Lyft, Uber, and other ride-sharing apps. To find these reports, click “Screening & Analysis” and then “Research”. Search for ride-sharing or ride-hailing in “Title”, or search for sharing in “Title”  and then click the And drop down menu to  add another search row and search Lyft or Uber in “Title/Text”.

If you want to dig into each company’s market share, use Market Share Reporter. Search ride hailing to find statistical tables  including “Ride-Hailing Industry, 2014“, “Ride-Hailing Apps in China“, as well as “Business Travel Transportation, 2014-2015” which includes market share data for Uber and Lyft.

IBIS World has industry reports on “Taxi and Limousine Services in the US” and on “Limousine and Town Car Services” that mention how Uber and Lyft are affecting these industries. You can find these reports by searching Uber, Lyft, and ride-sharing. While ride-sharing companies only comprise an estimated 6% of these markets, 6% of a nearly $11 billion market is nothing to sneeze at.

Mintel Oxygen also offers great coverage of consumer markets and products, including the market for ride-sharing apps. Try searching Uber, Lyft, and ride sharing to find reports on the way ride-sharing apps have affected insurance companies, car rental and travel companies, and driven digital trends and new business models.

Feel free to contact Lippincott’s business research librarians with questions about researching this or any other market or industry!

Capital Cube: Not your Father’s Stock Screener.

Financial databases from Bloomberg to Yahoo Finance can screen equities based on a combination of standard financial variables and ratios, analysts’ estimates, industry and location. But if you want to identify companies with, “Aggressive Accounting Practices”, a high “Fundamental Analysis” score or possible “Sandbagging” (understated or hidden earnings) you will need a different type of stock screener. Try Capital Cube.   As can be seen from the Capital Cube menu, the screening options are unusual. Capital Cube creates unique variables by taking the raw financial data from individual companies and comparing the data with averages from a group of peers. For example, a company is tagged as employing “Aggressive Accounting” when “…the company’s net income margin is higher than its peer median while the percentage of accruals is lower than peer median”. Capital Cube states that this situation is usually indicative of a company with an aggressive accounting policy. Capital Cube computes a daily “Fundamental Analysis” score for each company in its database. “The Fundamental Analysis score is calculated by comparing the company’s performance relative to peer companies across multiple attributes like relative valuation, valuation drivers, operations diagnostic, etc.”

 

Capital Cube uses fundamental data from the FactSet financial database. It includes more than 45,000 companies worldwide.

For additional information on equities screening see the Business FAQ:

 How can I screen for equities using criteria of my choice?

For information on FactSet see the Business FAQ:

Can I access FactSet through Lippincott Library?

What’s it worth to you? Company Valuation Resources

Contributors:  Cynthia L. Cronin-Kardon and Mia Wells

Valuation is used in business to determine the price participants are willing to pay or receive to buy or sell a business. Needless to say, the seller is looking to make as much profit on the deal as possible while the buyer hopes to pay as little as possible. Various resources can help determine the best price for the transaction. Listed below are some Lippincott Library resources to help students with assignments for a number of Wharton courses including FNCE207/728 – Corporate Valuation (which also has a course guide); FNCE250/750 – Venture Capital & the Finance of Innovation; and FNCE251/751 – Finance of Buyouts & Acquisitions.

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Comparable Deals
You’ll want to search for precedent transactions in the industry of the company you are valuing. Several sources allow you to search for comps by industry (SIC code, NAICS code, or alphabetically by name).

BizComps is a database of business sale statistics which are based on small business sales transaction data. After searching by SIC or NAICS code, you’ll be presented with a list of recent deals. Select those of interest and you can run a “Transaction Analysis,” which will give summary statistics/multiples on the deals you’ve chosen. Ask to be logged in by a librarian at our Reference Desk.

 

Business Valuations by Industry is a print source available at Lippincott Library Reference Desk (call number HG4028.V3 B78). It includes detailed studies of actual mergers and acquisitions, including deal “tearsheets”. This source is arranged by industry and includes actual transactions from 2007 through 2009. Profiles of buyers are included as well as some some foreign transactions and deal terminations. This is a great resource when you want to profile selected, covered deals.

 

 

 

Betas
Beta measure the volatility of an industry or company within the market as a whole. Betas help to calculate the risk of an investment.

For industry betas, use the Ibbotson SBBI Valuation Yearbook, a print guide held at our Reference Desk (call number HG4028.V3 S86).

 

Company betas are in Bloomberg, available in the Yablon Financial Resources Lab here in Lippincott, or the Forum level of Huntsman Hall. Search for a company of interest and run the Beta function by typing BETA <Go>.

 

 

Best practices
It’s always smart to look to the experts for advice – these sources will give you tips and tricks when performing a valuation for a company within a certain industry.

Business Reference Guide is a print source located at Lippincott Library Reference Desk (HD1393.25 .B87). This source provides several types of information which can be used for pricing businesses and franchises.  It is organized by industry and includes industry statistics from IBISWorld, “rules of thumb” by industry analysts, pricing tips, benchmarks, commentary, expenses as a percentage of annual sales and industry costs.

 

 

Standard & Poor’s Net Advantage provides industry surveys. One unique feature of this source the section included for every industry on “How to Analyze a Company in this

Industry”. To access this, click on Industries, select the survey of interest. Next scroll to the chapter titled, “How to Analyze a(n) […] Company,” which also contains a section on Equity Valuation as well as a glossary of industry terminology.

 

 

 

Company multiples
To track multiples of a company over time, use the sources listed below. This will help you price out the company itself or help you to compare it against a similar firm.

S&P Capital IQ provides lots of financial data including multiples. MBAs can access CapIQ via MBA Career Management, while Wharton undergraduates can come to the Yablon Financial Resources Lab and ask to be logged in by a librarian. Search for a public company of interest and look for Financials/Valuation in the left menu. You can change the date range to see multiples over time, as well.

 

Bloomberg is available in the Yablon Financial Resources Lab or the Forum level of Huntsman Hall. Search for a company of interest and run the Financial Analysis function by typing FA <Go>. Look for the Enterprise Value tab.

 

Past M&A deal tearsheets
You may find it helpful to look for past deals to get a sense of how many deals a company has done in the past, what were the specifics of a deal or how active the M&A market is in a certain industry.

Thomson ONE – note that this resource only loads with full functionality when using Internet Explorer. Once inside, scroll over Screening & Analysis, then Deals & League Tables, then M&A to select either a Quick Search or Advanced Search.

Zephyr – select Zephyr Advanced. Pick the variables to define your search. Below is a screenshot of a list of deals. You can click on any of these to get a detailed summary of the deal.

This post may have additional information – What’s the Deal? Researching Specific M&A Deals

 

 

 

 

Corporate Affiliations and ReferenceUSA’s “Way Back” Machines

Web-based company directories have many advantages over their print counterparts, but in one area they frequently fall short; they rarely include historical information. Financial databases of public companies such as Bloomberg, Thomson One, and S&P COMPUSTAT will include extensive historical financial data, but if you are looking for a private company’s address, product line, or executive names as of 1995, you would do better with a 20 year run of a printed directory than with its current online counterpart.  This pattern is changing as information vendors become aware of the market for historical company data. Two examples of corporate directory archives are the historical research sections of Corporate Affiliations and ReferenceUSA.

Corporate Affiliations shows the corporate structure of more than 1 million public and private companies world-wide with subsidiary listings and corporate linkage.  For more information please see:  Private Company Research Part 2:  Corporate Affiliations. The Historical Research module of the database gives company addresses, products, SIC numbers, names of executives and directors, and key financial data for every year from 1993 to date. As the menu below indicates, you can search by company name, or screen by one or more variables. A company (ENRON, for example) does not have to be in business currently to be included in the historical file. To reach the Historical Search menu, follow this path from the main Corporate Affiliations’ menu:

Subscriber Tools => Historical Search

 

 

 

 

The record for Motorola Solutions, Inc. shows how the data is presented for a single company.  Clicking on the date tabs (‘1993’ etc.) will include the data for that year in the output.

 

The historical treatment of changes in SICs and product descriptions will include as many as 14 SIC numbers and descriptions for each company.

 

 

 

 

 

The company record for all years and all variables can be downloaded as a text .CSV format which EXCEL will read.

Here is the result of a screen for companies in Philadelphia in 1993.

 

The WEB display of the results is only a small fraction of the EXCEL record, which will give details for all variables (SIC, executive name, financial data, etc.). If the entire date range is requested, the downloaded record will list the companies alphabetically and then give variable details for each year.

However, there is a display limit of 1,000 records per search.  For example, a search for all companies in France with data for all years will produce a set of more than 1,000 records, but only 1,000 records from the set will be displayed.

ReferenceUSA’s current company directory contains 24 million U.S. company records plus records for an additional 1.5 million Canadian companies. The database’s historical businesses  module contains 151 million U.S. company records from 2003 through 2013.

To see the menu below:

U.S. Historical Business Database => Custom Search

 

 

 

 

 

 

For example, a screen for breweries (Primary NAICS 312120)  in Pennsylvania in 2003 will produce this display:

 

Clicking on an individual company name will display a record giving the 2003 address, phone, sales volume, employee size, SIC/NAICS codes, as well as graphs of sales volume and number of employees for all available years between 2003 and 2013.

Downloading the records in  EXCEL and requesting “detail” will display all the variables available for the company for the given year. However, there is a limit of 250 records per download.  Requesting all records for a company for the range of years (2003 – 2013) will give a line of data for each year. In this way, you can determine if a company changes its name during the ten year period. For example, the company listed as “Pittsburgh Brewing”  from 2003-2008 is listed as “Iron City Brewing” between 2009 and 2012 and then as “Pittsburgh Brewing” again in 2013.

Companies can be mapped by number of locations, employee or sales size and displayed as “heat maps”. For example, the heat maps below show the doubling of  the number of breweries in Pennsylvania  between 2003 and 2013 (from 27 locations to 69).

The  availability of  the “back files” of ReferenceUSA and Corporate Affiliations are an important step in filling the gap in digital historical directory information.

For additional information on company histories see this posting: Don’t Know Much About “Corporate” History.

Also see our Research Guides:  Company Information and Business History Resources.

 

Put our Services to the Test

Welcome to Lippincott and the start of a new academic year!  We have a number of services to help make your life at Penn a lot easier.  Some of these services are described here.

 

DOCUMENT DELIVERY. Available to MBAs,  PhD candidates and Faculty. Please send an email to docdel@wharton.upenn.edu to request articles and book chapters. Include the full citation for the fastest reply.

BUSINESS FAQ.  Your 24/7 librarian. Search by keyword to find resources on your topic such as financial ratios, consumer demographics, analyst reports and many more.

RESEARCH ASSISTANCE.  Email us, chat, call us at 215-898-5924 or contact a subject specialist on your topic. Ask for a Consultation for yourself or your team. We know where to find the academic resources that you need.

WHARTON LAB COMPUTERS AND PRINTERS.  Too crowded over at Wharton?  Come over to Lippincott and use the Wharton Lab Computers here.  These computers are reserved for Wharton students and have all the same programs and features that are available on Wharton computers.  Sign in using your Wharton account information.

GROUP STUDY ROOMS.  Have a team project or group presentation?  Reserve a room  for your meeting.  Some rooms are larger and can accomodate up to 12 people.

YABLON FINANCIAL RESOURCES LAB.  Bloomberg and Capital IQ are at your fingertips.  Log in with your Wharton account information.  First time you use Bloomberg, create your own account.  Librarians log you into Capital IQ.

 

 

DATAPOINTS is the Lippincott Library’s blog. Follow us to learn tricks and tips about Bloomberg and many other Library databases.  Look for postings on new Library resources.  See this post, for example: Top 10 Resources for MBAs .

WORKSHOPS.  Wednesdays are Bloomberg days.  Every week we provide Bloomberg training from 3:30 – 4:30 in the Yablon Financial Resources Lab.  You can register here: Business Workshops.   It’s hands-on so be sure to come a few minutes early to create your own Bloomberg account.

We also offer other workshops on Job Search, Company Information and Business Research Skills.  See the training schedule to find out what workshops are being offered. Registration is recommended.

RESEARCH TO GO.  Every Monday -Thursday we come to you.  Reference Librarians are available from 12:30 – 1:30 in Huntsman Hall 251.  Drop in and get fast answers to your job search or research questions.

TEXT BOOKS.  Available for many Wharton courses at the Lippincott Reserve Desk.  Most can be checked out for three hours and used in the Library.

 

SUBJECT/COURSE GUIDES.  Subject Specialist have prepared Guides by subject area or course.  Use these to find resources for your projects and assignments.  Contact a Specialist for additional information.

FRANKLIN is the Library Catalog.  Use this to search for books, journals, videos and more.

MARK’S CAFE.  Food.  Drink.  Comfort.

Take advantage of the services available to you.  Hope to see you soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bloomberg’s PE: A Major Database for Private Equity

Private equity consists of firms and funds that make investments directly into private companies or conduct buyouts of public companies. Private equity, as the name implies, is not traded on public equity exchanges.

Bloomberg’s Private Equity (PE) database brings together data about PE firms, funds, investors and portfolios. In Bloomberg, type PE <GO> for this menu:

 

 

Search by Firm – Private equity firms are the general partners controlling the operations of the firm.

Search by Fund – Private equity firms direct their investments through one or more funds. Funds are associated with a specific investment strategy.  Venture Capital Funds, for example, are investments in startup firms and small businesses with perceived long-term growth potential. Here is a breakdown of the funds worldwide associated with a specific strategy that is available in Bloomberg.

Strategy           Percent of Total

==================

• Venture              28%
• Buyout               25%
• Growth                9%
• Debt                    8%
• Fund of Funds   10%
• Real Estate        13%
• Other                   8%

Search by Limited Partners – Limited partners are the source of investment funds. They include public and corporate pension funds, insurance companies, endowments, high net worth individuals, and sovereign wealth funds

Search by Deal – Deals can be classified as M&A investment, Joint venture, Spinoff, and Buyback, and then further sub classified as a PE buyout, Infrastructure, Real Asset, Real Estate, Secondary Transaction, or Venture Capital deal. Venture Capital deals include possible subdivisions into Seed, Angel, or Series (A to J).

The screen below shows a search for all PE deals in the past year that had targets in the alternative energy industry.

 

Search by Private Company – Bloomberg lists more than 15,000 companies in which PE firms invest.

• Clicking on the name of the company will display a record giving the name(s) of the PE firms which include the company in their portfolio, as well as additional information about the company. The record for U.S. Foods, for example, will show that it is held by KKR 2006 Fund.

In addition to its list of PE backed private companies, Bloomberg includes a database of 1.3 million private companies worldwide that are not PE backed.

Other useful features of Bloomberg’s PE include Funds in Market, which gives aggregate statistics by strategy, and Benchmarking and Fund Comparison, which allow the comparison of funds by such features as IRR (internal rate or return).

Take a look also at Bloomberg’s weekly Private Equity Brief

In addition to Bloomberg, the Penn Libraries have several additional databases that provide details of private equity activity. They include Thomson ONE, S&P Capital IQ (available at Lippincott in the Yablon Financial Resources Lab) , Preqin, and CB-Insights.

Also see our Research Guide:  Venture Capital and Private Equity.

For more information on Bloomberg see our Bloomberg Help Guide and additional posts in Datapoints under the Category:  Bloomberg.

Private Company Research Part II: Corporate Affiliations

Continuing with our search for private company information, in this post we highlight another database that you can use to find private company information. Take a look at our previous post on researching private companies for a good place to find private company financials.

Corporate Affiliations shows the corporate structure of more than 1 million public and private companies worldwide, with subsidiary listings and corporate linkage. Some important features of this database are:

 

Corporate Hierarchy

Corporate hierarchy shows the relationships among parents and subsidiaries. To find this information, search by company name. After selecting the company of interest, click on “Hierarchy” found in the left-hand menu. The screen below shows part of the corporate hierarchy of Bain Capital.

Company Executives

Use this database to find detailed lists of executives, their titles and biographies. For example, you can search and retrieve executives worldwide who are Wharton graduates (there are more than 1,200). The screen below is a partial list of Wharton graduates who are officers in Chinese companies.

A Little Privacy, Please: Finding Private Company Information

The shares of a private company are held by one or a few individuals, and are not traded publicly. In contrast, anyone can buy the shares of a public company. Private companies greatly outnumber public companies. More than 99% of the world’s companies are private.

The Penn Libraries subscribe to several databases with extensive information on private companies. The databases all provide, at some level of detail, company and business descriptions, industry classifications, and executive names. They differ in the range of companies, and executives offered, as well as the financial detail they give. All have distinctive features of value. Over the next few weeks, we will describe several databases that are useful for private company research.

ORBIS

Providing access to more than 100 million company records worldwide, ORBIS is the master index to the Bureau Van Dijk (BVD) suite of databases. The suite draws data from three types of files.

• Subject Related Files: Zephyr for M&A deals, Bankscope, ISIS for Insurance
• Country Specific Files:  including databases such as FAME for the U.K., QIN for China, and ICARUS for Canada and the U.S.
• International Files: OSIRIS, for 70,000 listed companies worldwide

Private Companies with Financial Statements

Most private companies in the U.S. are not required to make their financial statements public.