Commentary

High Five – 2025 Outlook (Fifth of a Series)

Number three of our five themes for 2025: “Default position: Discipline and careful portfolio construction will keep portfolios clean.”  There are clear reasons for a more bullish sentiment to take hold in private capital investment in the year ahead. A more certain macro backdrop, a decisive election result, US companies reporting above-expectation results, and the…

High Five – 2025 Outlook (Fourth of a Series)

Next up is the second of our five themes for the year ahead: “A busier market: Providers of creative and flexible capital solutions will find favor.”  As a brightening macro picture releases pent-up demand for private capital dealmaking – there was $2.6 trillion of dry powder among global buyout and venture capital firms waiting in the…

High Five – 2025 Outlook (Third of a Series)

We now turn to the first of our five themes for the year ahead: “Still higher for longer: What slower rate cuts mean for private capital investors.”  Let’s stipulate the Fed has pulled off the trickiest of landings: cooling down inflation while keeping the economy chugging along. With reference rates sliced by 100 bps from…

High Five – 2025 Outlook (Second of a Series)

What we learned about 2024 is that many worries identified by analysts and market observers came to naught. Rates, economic growth, and inflation – all areas of concern last January – are in good shape as 2025 rolls out. More robust job growth than expected (see our Chart of the Week) is just one example….

High Five – 2025 Outlook (First of a Series)

A year ago we identified four issues for 2024 that would lay the foundations for a Goldilocks era in private debt and private equity:  It turns out all these factors did contribute to a stellar year for top private capital managers and investors. As we look back at the market’s progress, it’s now evident the…

Private Equity Now – Portfolio Positioning (LP Perspective)

We conclude our series on the Private Equity liquidity crunch with this question: What do scarce realizations mean for LPs constructing a portfolio in today’s environment? Having reviewed tactical tools and strategies available to investors to find liquidity, deploy capital, and select managers, we turn to building a sound and profitable portfolio. Every limited partner…

Private Equity Now – The GP/LP Relationship

In this series we have explored the challenges GPs face today across the full private equity lifecycle – fundraising, deployment and exits. The most adaptive private equity managers are those who are the most creative and strategic in partnering with their limited partners. In the always shifting GP/LP power equation, both are seeking trusted partners…

Private Equity Now – Impact on Fundraising (LP Perspective)

We resume our discussion of the private equity liquidity crunch and its impact on fundraising, this time from the LP’s perspective. The supply/demand imbalance in the fundraising environment has shifted to favor LPs. This gives them greater GP access, longer diligence windows, and more negotiating power with LPA terms.  But many LPs, their investment programs…

Private Equity Now – Impact on Fundraising (GP Perspective)

So far in our “Private Equity Now” series we’ve covered the various technologies available to LPs and GPs to access liquidity in this difficult environment. This week we focus on fundraising to understand how GPs are navigating with investors pining for distributions. Indeed, private equity fund managers are facing a landscape unlike any we’ve experienced…

Private Equity Now: The LP Perspective

Over the past two weeks we’ve touched on the distribution dilemma in private equity, and most recently on the perspectives and tactics used by GPs. This week, we dive deeper into the LPs perspective and how allocators are managing private equity programs in the current environment. To quantify the issues: LPs observed a 9.5% distribution…