Private Market Talks: Conversations and insights on the private markets with private capital’s leading figures.

Private equity was on fire globally, at least until 2023. Fundraising targets got ever larger and deal activity was on a roll. So, what changed and what can both investors and managers expect for 2024? In this episode of Private Market Talks, we speak with Fraser van Rensburg, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Asante Capital. Fraser explains the current fundraising environment and dives into the impact of higher for longer interest rates, the denominator effect and other factors on private equity fundraising. He also explains the rise of continuation funds and the attraction of private credit funds. We cover a lot of ground. Enjoy the conversation!

As growing companies delay IPOs or sales, private company secondaries have become a rapidly growing market opportunity, especially as investors, founders and employees seek liquidity by selling a portion of their investment in a private company. Tom Callahan, CEO of Nasdaq Private Market (NPM), recently joined Private Market Talks to discuss the private company secondaries market – a historically opaque and inefficient market – and the challenges faced by investors, founders and employees when they go to trade their shares. He also takes us through how NPM is uniquely positioned to create a transparent, tech-friendly, efficient and trusted platform for trading of these secondaries. And, with over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry, Tom also shares his advice for anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit looking to make their mark in the sector.

Bryan Corbett, president and CEO of the Managed Funds Association, walks us through regulatory policy issues affecting the global alternative asset management industry. Throughout this episode, Bryan dives deep into the potential impact of the new rules and the issues that they raise for managers and investors. This is a must-listen episode for any alternative asset manager.

This week on Private Market Talks, Warburg Pincus’ Global Head of ESG, Leela Ramnath invites us to look at how ESG drives growth. Leela is one of the leaders of a private equity task force that developed a methodology to analyze key ESG factors specific to the unique needs of each company and which are vital for achieving long term growth and resiliency, along with and never without, sustainability.  On the podcast, Leela helps identify the link between a company’s performance and its ability to have access to capital, through their ESG priorities and data reporting. She uncovers the fundamental issues and concepts that constitute ESG and how management teams can better understand how those issues influence a company’s success. 

Welcome to Season Two of Private Market Talks. We start this season with a conversation with Kevin Foley, Global Head of Debt Capital Markets for J.P. Morgan, the world’s largest bank. J.P. Morgan is a major player across the financial markets and Kevin is uniquely positioned to discuss a wide range of topics related to debt and global economic activity.     Over the course of the episode, Kevin and host Peter Antoszyk compare today’s economic landscape to its activity when they last spoke, in the Fall of 2022. They also dive into interest rate trends, corporate credit fundamentals and the future of private credit before rounding the conversation with views on the M&A market and a few quick-fire questions. We hope you enjoy this episode of Private Market Talks. 

This week on Private Market Talks, Neuberger Berman’s Susan Kasser discusses the specific values at the core of building a top-tier private debt group as well as each investment decision. She also talks about the three “C’s” for creating a successful team and offers an insightful, self-proven piece of advice. Later in the episode, Susan looks back at the evolution of private debt and we hear her thoughts on what’s been done right over the past 20 years in terms of investments, what’s to be improved and where is the asset class going. Finally, Susan shares her thoughts on what portfolio managers can do to prepare for unforeseen dislocations in a post-pandemic environment.

This week on Private Market Talks, MidCap Financial’s Clare Bailhé joins us to talk about what it’s like to build, scale and manage a market-leading credit investment platform. In 2008 – a pivotal year for the financial industry – Clare and her team formed MidCap and embarked on a $500 million fundraise. Since then, they have grown exponentially, and now have $45 billion of assets under management. Clare shares with us the challenges and opportunities she faced launching a finance platform in 2008, why she and her partners decided to join forces with Apollo and why having the same team at MidCap since its launch has been pivotal to success. She also shares the three most valuable lessons she’s learned managing business growth.

In this episode of Private Market Talks, CEO and co-founder of Novata, Alex Friedman helps contextualize the evolving conversation around ESG and demystifies how companies and their investors assess ESG compliance and goals. During our conversation, Alex talks about how Novata is working to develop objective data so that companies and their investors can set ESG goals, track progress and unearth how they’ve fared – all relative to their peers. He discusses how Novata’s proprietary database aims to allow CEOs and investors to begin to set ESG benchmarks, which help public and private companies identify ESG risk factors and develop mitigation strategies.  

On the latest episode of Private Market Talks, we dive into the world of private equity with Matt Nacier, principal at Lincolnshire Management and member of the firm’s origination team. Lincolnshire Management is a middle market-focused private equity firm and an owner-operator in the truest sense. During the discussion, Matt shares how Lincolnshire’s approach to growing founder-owned businesses means seeing what others may not, rolling their sleeves up on things “that necessarily wouldn’t survive an elevator pitch” and creating flexibility for themselves, their LPs and their business management teams. He also touches on the relationship between private equity and private credit, the impact an economic swing will have on portfolios and why there is no such thing as a perfect business.

Jonathan Grayer, Chairman and CEO of Imagine Learning, has been an executive, an owner, a founder, and a growth investor. In episode seven of Private Market Talks, Jonathan takes us through his history as CEO and Chairman of Kaplan; founder of Weld North; partnerships with KKR, Silverlake and Onex; and management and investment in Imagine Learning, which today is the largest provider of K-12 digital curriculum to U.S. school systems. Jonathan also shares his thoughts about assessing talent, and what it takes to be a successful operator and investor, including why the things that go wrong are just as important as those that go right.