A
Student or recent graduate
This is not an entry programme. Come back when you have executed live work.
PGPThe Principal Programme
You have executed deals and never owned one.
Source a proprietary £5 to £30 million UK target, structure the deal, and defend it to a voting investment committee.
Twelve weeks|5 seats|By application
Previous cohorts
People in the last three cohorts came from these firms.
Audience
Who this is for
Select the seat that looks like yours.
You have written the quality of earnings. Someone else signed the letter.
You already
You can take accounts apart and build the model without a template.
What is missing
You have never chosen the company, run proprietary outreach, or owned the investment verdict.
This is not for you if
B
Need modelling taught from scratch
You must be able to build a leveraged buyout model unaided before you apply.
C
Asking about placement rates
We do not place anyone and we do not claim to. If that is the first question, this is not for you.
The gap
What is missing
Strong operators are often missing the judgements that sit with the person who owns a proprietary deal. The programme is built for that gap on £5 to £30 million owner-managed UK businesses, not mega-fund auction process.
Origination
01You have only ever seen deals that arrived. Broker processes, or a target handed down by an MD. Owner-managed businesses do not come with a CIM.
The screen
02You can analyse a company once told to. You have never decided in ninety minutes whether one deserves ninety hours.
The owner
03You have never sat opposite someone selling the business they built, without an adviser in the room.
The verdict
04Nobody has ever voted no on your work in a room where you owned the recommendation.
The structure
05You can model a waterfall. You have never designed one against what a mid-market lender will actually underwrite.
Monday morning
06You disappear at signing. You have never written the hundred day plan the owner will run.
Skill map
Where analyst strength stops helping
Bain's 2026 outlook: value creation and proprietary sourcing now decide returns.
Analyst seat Principal seat
Based on Bain & Company, Global Private Equity Report 2026. With less leverage and multiple expansion, Bain argues returns now hinge on proprietary deal pipelines and full-potential diligence. That is the seat shift this map shows: modelling alone is no longer the edge.
How PGP works
The twelve week pack
Built for proprietary deals on £5 to £30 million owner-managed UK businesses. Open a workstream, then a file. Origination, diligence, structure, then the IC pack and completion.
Programme arc
From execution to ownership
PGP is sequenced as five judgements. Each week compounds into the live investment committee.
Models, memos, diligence packs under someone else's mandate.
Virtual data room · PGP twelve week pack
Confidential
PGP_Cohort / 01_Origination / 01_Investment_Thesis.pdf
Week 101 Origination
Thesis and sector selection
Open the file. Session first, written deliverable due before the next one.
- Document
- 01_Investment_Thesis.pdf
- Type
- Memorandum
- Deliverable due
- Written investment thesis and screen criteria
Deliverables
What you leave with
A closing pack. Six exhibits. Open one.
Participant closing pack
Six exhibits · Not a certificate
Exhibit AWorkbook
Proprietary target universe
Forty names. Sector you chose.
A screened universe you built, not a list handed down. Each name has a source, a first cut, and a reason it is still on the page.
Exhibit_A_Target_Universe.xlsx
Judgement
The investment committee
Three external members, currently investing, not employees of the programme. They read the memoranda in advance, question the participants for three hours, and vote. Recommendations can be and are rejected.
Room dynamics
Three chairs. One vote each.
External members read memoranda in advance. They question for three hours. They vote. Pass is not assumed.
Investment
To be announced
Investment Director or Principal, UK lower mid market buyout
Credit
To be announced
Investment Director, private credit or leveraged finance
Capital
To be announced
Direct investment lead, family office or former PE principal
Guest faculty
Practitioners join for transaction services, lending, and corporate counsel. Names are published as they are confirmed.
Week 6 · TS
To be announced
Guest practitioner from transaction services on scoping financial diligence as a principal
Week 7 · Debt
To be announced
Guest practitioner from lending on debt capacity and mid-market underwriting
Week 12 · Counsel
To be announced
Guest practitioner from corporate law on locked box, completion accounts, and SPA mechanics
Before you apply
Free before you apply
Day One Analyst Simulator
Prove execution before you apply
A mock secure workstation: Outlook, VDR, and live deal judgment calls. Test how you decide under time pressure before you apply.
Open the simulatorThe Private Equity Forum
A member-run group for buyout finance
A free private equity forum and community. Deal teardowns, practitioner speakers, and city chapters in Mumbai and London. Application required.
Visit the ForumFaculty
Who runs it
Swapnil Jambhulkar founded Norland Academy and Stator Capital, a UK holding company acquiring owner managed businesses in the lower middle market.
Stator is working towards its first completion. The programme does not rest on a record of closed transactions and does not claim one. It rests on participants doing real work on real companies, judged by an external committee of people who invest for a living.