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Most of my time is spent with operating partners and portfolio company CEOs. Many are still holding a company that was on target to sell two years ago. While the business may be performing, leadership can’t easily prove why.
For years, private equity value creation followed a familiar playbook: improve margins, grow EBITDA, complete strategic acquisitions and exit when timing is right. READ MORE
Leadership continuity is becoming a more significant consideration for private equity firms as demographic pressures tighten the market for experienced executives. A new report from Cowen Partners finds that aging CEO and CFO populations are creating succession risks that can intersect directly with a fund’s hold-and-exit timeline. For executive search firms, the trend is increasing the importance of building leadership pipelines well before a critical transition becomes urgent. READ MORE
US private equity funds that invest in fast-growing companies without taking a controlling stake raised a record amount of capital in the first half of this year, in a sign of their strong recovery from a 2023 fundraising slump. Growth funds attracted $33.2bn in the first six months of this year, the highest first-half total on record and a 36 per cent jump from a year earlier, according to data from Preqin. Fundraising across other private equity strategies grew 20 per cent over the same period. READ MORE
Gail McManus is stepping back. 30 years after founding Private Equity Recruitment (PER), the firm that’s both literally and practically synonymous with getting a private equity job in Europe, McManus is working part-time. She handed leadership of PER to long term colleagues Charlie Hunt and Rupert Bell last year in a management buyout and now has the luxury of regularly switching on her out of office. But she hasn’t disappeared entirely: McManus is the well-established queen of private equity hiring, and she still enjoys wearing that crown.
“Jobs in this industry are all about trust and judgement and potential and whatever you do people remain gloriously diverse, difficult, charismatic, challenging, awkward and entrepreneurial,” says McManus of private capital firms and their employees. “This is why I love it.” READ MORE
Private equity firms have raced to embed AI into portfolio companies, betting it will reshape businesses and boost valuations, yet few have results to show for it.
A round of conversations with advisers provided a reality check on the hype, laying bare the distance between what the PE industry is hankering for from AI and what its experiments have delivered so far. While most firms have been tinkering enthusiastically, many haven’t done it in a way that has translated into financial gains. READ MORE
Secret backrooms where deals are done in private: the realm of conspiracy theories? Or an increasingly large part of capitalism?
Since the financial crisis, some of the big winners have been private equity firms. They’ve snapped up bargains on everything from high street brands, to care homes and nurseries – and maybe even the house you own. READ MORE
Management fees have held steady, but general partners are shifting more administrative costs and other fees on to their investors READ MORE
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