Private Equity Spotlight

This episode is sponsored by AlixPartners The Disruption Matters special podcast miniseries is back for a third season, and this year, leading industry experts discuss how private markets can best use today’s technologies to create value. In this third episode, we will discuss life after the 100-day plan and that tricky middle period where effective portfolio management is paramount, especially if the company isn’t growing in line with expectations. Here we’ll investigate how tech and AI can be used to diagnose problems, even propose solutions, and how much the human element still matters in managing a crisis. For example, no workforce wants management relying on AI bots to sell them on a new strategic direction. Guests include Arvindh Kumar, partner and co-head of technology, private equity at EQT; Antony Edwards, managing director at PSG Equity; Neil Kalvelage, co-lead of portfolio operations team efforts at Centerbridge; and Dan Boland, partner and managing director at AlixPartners. Clips: - Magnum Force. John Milius, Robert Daily, Warner Bros, The Malpaso Company. - RoboCop. Edward Neumeier, Michael Miner, Arne Schmidt, Orion Pictures.

This episode is sponsored by Arrow Global Commercial real estate was heavily affected by rising interest rates throughout 2023. Many sectors of the asset class struggled against a challenging macroeconomic backdrop, with transaction activity dropping significantly and debt providers becoming more conservative in their lending. But over the course of 2024, base rates have begun to stabilize. So, how are investors adapting? In this episode of Spotlight, Zachary Vaughan, chief investment officer and global head of real estate at Arrow Global, speaks to Jonathan Brasse, editor-in-chief, real estate at PEI Group, about the impact of stabilizing interest rates and the best strategies for investors navigating the current market landscape. He discusses the significance of localized expertise in Europe, the emergence of situational distress in smaller transactions, and the shift towards operational real estate investments. He also discusses evolving portfolios and the increasing appeal of sectors like hospitality and retail.

The top 50 secondaries investors globally raised $473.8 billion in the five years to the end of 2023, according to this year’s SI 50. That’s a 9 percent increase on last year’s ranking, when $434.5 billion was recorded across a longer counting period of five-and-a-half years. Ardian took the top spot, raising $49.6 billion across the period, followed closely by Blackstone Strategic Partners, which raked in $49.5 billion. Lexington Partners, which holds the record for the largest secondaries fund ever raised, accumulated $36.7 billion in commitments, coming in at number three. Specialisation is driving much of this underlying growth – whether that be through asset class expansion, strategies focused down on LP-leds or GP-led deals, or picking a focus on a market segment with less secondary competition. Evergreen vehicles are also spurring on new avenues for secondaries capital raising. In this episode of Second Thoughts, senior reporter Madeleine Farman and Americas correspondent Hannah Zhang discuss how far these factors have driven growth in the SI 50 and how much room there is to grow further. See the full SI 50 ranking here

Profit sharing is at the heart of the private equity incentive model: deliver LPs a certain return and keep 20 percent of the profits. But private equity managers in the UK look set to pay a higher tax on any profit they take from such investments. The Labour government, which was voted into power in July, has said it aims to raise the tax on carried interest so it’s closer to the income tax rate of 45 percent. Doing so would raise £565 million pounds ($746 million; €671 million) in annual revenue, according to the government’s estimates. In this episode, we sit down with Michael Graham, a partner at law firm DLA Piper who specialises in tax for private funds. Graham has been part of the consultation group providing the UK's tax authority with details on what a potential hike in carried interest tax could mean. Graham discusses the lessons the UK can learn from other jurisdictions, why it's unlikely professionals in the UK private equity industry will leave en masse, why a flat tax rate is an attractive idea, and what 'capital at risk' may really mean.

This episode is sponsored by Bain Capital Asia’s credit markets are the largest in the world, yet they remain heavily bank dominated. While large blue-chip businesses are well serviced, there is a material undersupply of custom, fit-for-purpose capital for SMEs, mid-market businesses and financial sponsors. This is creating a significant opportunity for direct lenders. Asia’s credit markets are also complex and nuanced, which places a premium on managers with the right networks, insights and experience. In this episode of the Private Debt Investor Podcast, Bain Capital’s Andrew Schantz, discusses how to navigate Asian private credit and what the future holds for an asset class having a “golden moment” across the globe.

This episode is sponsored by Barings and Nuveen Technological innovation is making everything more digital-dependent, and a looming climate catastrophe is ramping up demands for cleaner energy. But neither digitisation nor the energy transition can be accomplished without building new infrastructure or repurposing existing assets, which requires some serious capital investment. Yet, with public purses at near empty levels and regulation constraining bank lending over the last decade, there is a sizable financing gap. This presents an opportunity for private markets. In this episode, Pieter Welman, head of global infrastructure at Barings, and Don Dimitrievich, a senior managing director at Nuveen and portfolio manager for the firm’s energy infrastructure credit business, tell Infrastructure Investor’s Helen Lewer that infra debt is a core part of the capital solution. They explain why the strategy’s resilience in difficult economic conditions is piquing the interests of more and more LPs that are eager to finance the world’s future infrastructure needs.

This episode is sponsored by Infravia Capital Partners and Vauban Infrastructure Partners Few would deny that investment in the energy transition is an urgent priority across Europe. Without investment in renewable energy, along with a host of associated infrastructure, there is little hope of meeting net-zero targets. Moreover, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine has demonstrated, Europe’s energy security depends on the continent harnessing its own renewable resources. Yet escalating costs, supply chain disruption and rising interest rates have complicated the investment picture. Fund managers must navigate a complex web of considerations to ensure they select assets that truly possess infrastructure characteristics. In this episode, Christoph Bruguier, chief investment officer at Vauban Infrastructure Partners, and Aymar de Tracy, partner in the infrastructure investment team at Infravia Capital Partners, tell Infrastructure Investor’s Ben Payton that the outlook remains strong. Despite complications in the market, they agree that infrastructure funds can access enormous opportunities with a disciplined strategy around energy transition investing.

This episode is sponsored by 17Capital NAV finance used to be a niche, little known corner of debt capital markets, but over the past 10 years it has evolved into a firmly established part of the private markets ecosystem. As NAV finance has moved into the mainstream, private capital managers have taken up NAV facilities in ever greater numbers to address a wide range of financing requirements. So, how are managers using NAV finance across their platforms, and how has the market navigated a cycle of rising inflation and interest rates? What do LPs think of NAV finance and what is the outlook for the industry in the next 12 to 24 months? In this episode, we sit down with 17Capital partner Dane Graham to discuss what has driven the NAV finance industry’s rapid growth over the last 10 years, unpack how managers are using NAV facilities at the portfolio company and fund level, and look ahead to what comes next following a period of higher interest rates and tighter liquidity.

This episode is sponsored by UBS Asset Management and Proskauer Rose The global secondaries market has grown from roughly $47 billion in 2014 to more than $100 billion today. In Europe, fragmentation has led to some significant regional differences. However, it is also clear that many of the trends and dynamics found in the European market are the same as in North America – indeed, some of these developments occurred there first. In the penultimate episode of the Decade of Secondaries Investing podcast miniseries, we sit down with Jochen Mende, an executive director responsible for secondaries transactions at UBS Asset Management, and Bruno Bertrand-Delfau, partner and co-head of secondaries transactions and liquidity solutions at Proskauer Rose. The pair discuss how the European secondaries market has developed over the past decade, how it compares with the North American market and what’s in store for GP-led and LP-led transactions globally. For full coverage of our Decade of Secondaries Investing series, including all podcast episodes and an interactive timeline, click here.

This episode is sponsored by AlixPartners The Disruption Matters special podcast miniseries is back for a third season, and this year, leading industry experts will discuss how private markets can best use today’s technologies to create value. In this second episode, we explore how technology is changing the nature of due diligence. How much can AI improve investment decisions? Is it only a matter of data management, or can these new technologies help identify potential operational efficiencies, EBITDA growth and new markets? And is this reserved for tech-forward industries like SaaS or can they be applied to sectors like manufacturing and insurance? We answer these questions with what’s possible today, complete with the limitations and the need for expert supervision. Listeners should know that this episode ends with a plot twist that might keep GPs up at night. Guests include Anders Thulin, partner and head of digital & technology practice at Triton Partners; Andrew Tarver, founding partner of Motive Partners; Hoyoung Pak, a partner and managing director with AlixPartners; Jason McDannold, partner and managing director with AlixPartners; Lewis Bantin, partner at ECI; Sofia Gertsberg, managing director of quantitative investment science at HarbourVest; and Jeremy Lehman, director at Alix Partners. Clips: - Alien. Dan O'Bannon. 20th Century-Fox, Brandywine Productions. - Star Wars: The Force Awakens. JJ Abrams. Lucasfilm Ltd, Bad Robot, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.