SBIA Southern Private Equity Conference Addresses Major Issues Facing America’s Leading Small Business Investors

Premier investment forum for lower middle market to examine 2015 business landscape

The Small Business Investor Alliance (SBIA), the leading association for lower middle market private equity funds and investors, will hold its annual Southern Private Equity Conference on February 9-10, 2015, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Miami. Southern Regional President and Partner at Jefferson Capital Partners, Mr. Francis Cazayoux, will host this event, which features political commentator James Carville as keynote speaker.

Mr. Carville will outline the road ahead for “Politics and the 2016 Race for the White House.”He is Co-Founder of the public opinion research and Washington advisory organization Democracy Corps. Mr. Carville will speak on Tuesday at 11:30 a.m.

This year’s southern investment forum begins on Tuesday at 9:00 a.m., offering insights on the upcoming legislative, regulatory, and tax agendas, recent fund performance, and effective exit strategies. The conference will open with SBIA President Brett Palmer deconstructing the legislative roadmap facing America’s private capital investors and share how fund managers can actively impact policymaking in Congress.

Panel discussions follow on topics of critical interest to the investment community including the latest insights on lower middle market deal making moderated by veteran mergers and acquisitions (M&A) specialist Graeme Frazier of GF Data Resources. The second panel will focus on one of the most challenging issues facing the maturing private equity industry – generational change. Plexus Capital Partner Robert Gefaell will serve as moderator of “Preparing for Leadership Change: Effective Succession Planning.”

“The Southern Private Equity Conference provides our members in the southern region with the opportunity to share the latest best practices along with deal flow. They leave the conference with the latest intelligence on what lies ahead for private capital investment amid a new regulatory environment and what’s shaping up to be an extremely competitive M&A market in 2015,” said Mr. Cazayoux, Southern Regional President.

A pre-Conference session on “Trends in PE Valuations” will feature panelists Jack Clemens from Duff & Phelps and Jennifer Hunter Orell from KPMG. Harry Haskins, Director of Small Business Investment Companies (SBIC) Relations at the SBIA, will moderate this panel on Monday evening at 5:00 p.m.

For more information about the Southern Private Equity Conference, please visit http://www.sbia.org/page/Southern.

About the Small Business Investor Alliance (SBIA)

The Small Business Investor Alliance (SBIA) is the premier organization of lower middle market private equity funds and investors. SBIA works on behalf of its members as a tireless advocate for policies that promote competitive markets and robust domestic investment for growing small businesses. SBIA has been playing a pivotal role in promoting the growth and vitality of the private equity industry for more than 50 years. For more information, visit www.SBIA.org or call 202-628-5055.