Bain Capital Investments, 1984-1999

This private pro­spect­us was de­veloped by Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown in 2000 for those who could in­vest a $1-mil­lion min­im­um in Bain Cap­it­al funds. It in­cludes the in­vest­ment his­tory of Bain Cap­it­al from 1984 through 1999, most of the years that Rom­ney ran the firm. After ob­tain­ing the pro­spect­us, the Los Angeles Times asked Stan­ford Uni­versity eco­nom­ics lec­turer Alex Gould to re­view and in­ter­pret the doc­u­ment. Gould is a re­search fel­low at the Stan­ford In­sti­tute for Eco­nom­ic Policy Re­search and has ex­per­i­ence in the world of private equity and ven­ture cap­it­al in­vest­ing. The pro­spect­us, an­not­ated with his com­ments, ap­pears be­low.

For an aca­dem­ic per­spect­ive on how private equity cre­ates eco­nom­ic value, read ‘Private Equity and Em­ploy­ment.’