The 100-Day Cost Reset in Private Equity

The playbook that built private equity returns over the past decade is losing its edge. Multiple expansion has compressed. Leverage is more expensive and harder to access. Market timing is less reliable. What remains, and what now accounts for a growing share of fund-level returns, is operational value creation: margin expansion, cash discipline, and the capabilities to sustain both.

Operating partners often feel this pressure most directly. Many own the performance trajectory of assets from day one. And they know that episodic cost cutting—a round of procurement savings here, a hiring freeze there—does not produce the kind of durable, defensible margin improvement that holds up at exit. READ MORE

A private-equity giant sees 'unlimited' upside in a booming sector that's not AI

Geopolitical tensions are creating massive opportunities in defense and industrial investing, according to Carlyle Group CEO Harvey Schwartz.

"Everywhere you go in the world, the conversation is the same. It's a conversation first and foremost about national security," Schwartz said at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference in New York on Wednesday. READ MORE

After the Shein shock, Everlane’s founder launches his next act

When Puck announced on May 17 that sustainable fashion startup Everlane had been acquired by Chinese ultra-fast-fashion retailer Shein, it sent shockwaves throughout the apparel industry. Michael Preysman, who founded Everlane in 2011, was just as shocked.

“I found out the same time as everyone else,” he said in a LinkedIn post. “I’m not involved with the company anymore, and like many, am still digesting the news.” READ MORE

How AI Is Changing Finance, And Why Private Equity Is Behind

Venture capital moves fast and breaks things. Private equity moves deliberately and fixes them. That difference explains a lot about where PE sits on AI right now: not absent, but methodical in a moment moving faster than methodical allows.

According to my company's research, VC-backed companies have adopted AI at a 77% rate. PE-backed companies are at 59%. That gap is less about technology than organizational readiness. READ MORE

How private equity changed the world

The 50th birthday of New York private-equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts – founded with $120,000 by the cousins George Roberts and Henry Kravis and now holding $758 billion of assets under management – is a moment to ask whether the modus operandi the firm pioneered has been good or bad for the world. Private-equity buyouts of underperforming public companies have certainly been a catalyst for sharper corporate performance across every western economy. But with what impact on society? READ MORE

Private equity backers slam ‘runaway’ legal costs from top law firms

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An influential body of private equity investors wants to change a longstanding arrangement that leaves them paying the “runaway legal costs” involved in fundraising that have fuelled the growth of some of the world’s top law firms. The Institutional Limited Partners Association has taken aim at a protocol whereby investors in private equity funds pay the legal costs of buyout group managers as well as their own in negotiations over setting up the vehicles. READ MORE

Volatility Complicates the Rebirth of Liquidity in Private Equity

After years of tribulations, last year brought glimmers of hope for the private equity industry, with a boom in deals, capital raised, and, a fundamental piece for LPs’ liquidity needs,  company exits. However, the current landscape of volatility in global markets casts doubt on the immediate future of deals, especially considering the weakness in IPO activity and the concentration in megadeals seen in the recent past.

The global private capital market began this year with considerable optimism, according to consulting firm KPMG. “A deep pool of available capital, an improved divestment environment, and a sense that macroeconomic conditions were stabilizing gave investors cautious confidence. This continued into the beginning of 1Q 2026; however, the sudden conflict in the Middle East understandably brought an initial contraction in the market,” said Gavin Geminder, Global Head of Private Equity at the firm, in a recent report. READ MORE

AI creates a mess for private equity

It's no secret that AI has become a splitting headache for private equity, or at least for funds that bought big into enterprise software.

  • But this isn't just a backward-looking problem, which can be temporarily stemmed by Q1 equity markdowns and maturing debt renegotiations.

  • Almost every industry big that spoke to Axios at the Milken Global Conference this week said that AI has created massive modeling challenges for new deals, almost regardless of sector.

Private equity is a long-term asset class, typically holding portfolio companies for a minimum of three or four years. READ MORE

Private equity hits 16-year lows, crypto keeps tumbling — and Trump wants both in your 401(k)

Private equity is giving 2008 vibes (1). Private credit is in crisis. Some are calling the end of the crypto honeymoon, with its trading volume drop (2) the lowest since 2023. All the while, Trump wants all of these assets to be added into 401(k).

In response to the self-proclaimed crypto president's August 2025 executive order, the Labor Department has proposed a rule that would make way for alternative assets into 401(k)s — a retirement plan that's nearly half a century old. READ MORE

Private equity-backed CFOs earned average of $604K per year in 2025

Private equity firms may have been returning less profit to investors in recent years, but finance chiefs working at businesses owned by such companies are seeing their own compensation packages grow.

That’s the upshot of a new report issued Wednesday by executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles. On average, CFOs working at PE-backed firms in the U.S. took home cash pay of $604,000 in 2025, up 5% year over year. READ MORE

Report examines private equity’s impact on healthcare operations

A new report examining private equity activity in healthcare argues that heavy debt loads and aggressive financial strategies can undermine patient care across several sectors of the industry.

The analysis, entitled Private Equity and Healthcare: Balancing Profit and Wellness, reviews more than a decade of private equity-backed transactions and case studies involving hospitals, nursing homes, behavioral health providers, medical staffing firms and medical equipment manufacturers. READ MORE

Goldman's Expansion in Private Credit: Next Growth Engine?

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. GS is making a more decisive strategic pivot, with private credit emerging as a key pillar of its long-term growth story. The company is aggressively expanding its private equity and alternatives platform through acquisitions, platform enhancements and the integration of new investment capabilities, all of which should strengthen its growth prospects over time.

Goldman aims to significantly scale its private credit business by increasing lending to private equity firms and asset managers, expanding across Europe, the U.K. and Asia, and growing its private credit portfolio to $300 billion by 2029. READ MORE

The Return of the IPO Could Spell Trouble for Private Equity

Going public used to be a sign that a company had made it. In the last decade or so, however, IPOs started to become a little … cringe. That could change this year, as initial public offerings seem poised for a comeback — which in turn could provoke a long-overdue reckoning not only for tech optimism but also for private markets.

IPOs in 2026 could be big and splashy, such as SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as smaller and quieter, with many lesser-known technology firms also filing. In some ways this is an encouraging sign. More IPOs suggest confidence in the market and the tech sector, and it’s good for the economy when the best, fastest-growing companies are available to investors in the public markets. But there is also a less optimistic take. READ MORE

Private equity has a serious case of indigestion

Readers of Antoine De Saint-Exupery’s The Little Prince may recall the hatlike appearance of the snake that swallowed an elephant. After the festive season, some may empathise with that swollen reptile. The private equity industry has ended 2023 in something of a similar state. Private equity companies have struggled to find buyers for their portfolio companies for a number of years now. Companies have had their hands full managing snarled-up supply chains and rampant inflation. Opportunities for successful initial public offerings are few and far between. High valuations for private equity portfolio companies have not helped. READ MORE

Why Does Private Equity Get to Play Make-Believe With Prices?

If you wanted to come up with the one-liner about investing most likely to make my head explode, you might try, “The way to choose investments is to just jump on whatever’s done the best over the past three to five years.” Or, getting more creative: “Hey, did you know Cathie Wood is still getting inflows?” Yet more creative: “The war in Ukraine was caused by stock buybacks.” But you couldn’t do much better than “Interim valuations don’t really matter,” as Christopher Schelling says in reference to private equity investing. If exploding my cranium was the goal, then well played, sir. Otherwise, oh, hell no. READ MORE