Spotlight: A PEI Podcast

The opportunity surrounding uncertainty

This episode is sponsored by Pomona Capital and Proskauer and first appeared on Secondaries Investor's Second Thoughts podcast

While the Trump administration's tariff announcements and the subsequent unfurling of uncertainty globally does create some headaches, it also creates a tailwind for the LP-led secondaries market.

"What the market has trouble adjusting to is uncertainty. And what happens in times of uncertainty, like the times we're dealing in now, is that [M&A and IPO] transactions tend to pull away," Michael Granoff, founder and chief executive of Pomona Capital, said in this episode.

"That uncertainty does tend to push more sellers into the secondary market... And so, in a funny way, it's not that we're uncorrelated to the world – we are – but on the other side of things, all of those things that keep us up at night that we're talking about actually create more opportunity for a buyer in the secondaries market."

While market participants continued to put their heads down and get deals done that were far along when the tariff announcements occurred, secondaries professionals are still working to digest second- and third-order impacts, Galen Lewis, a partner in Proskauer's private funds group, explained. "Normally, distress of some sort is something that creates additional volume in the secondaries market."

In this far-reaching discussion, Granoff and Lewis discuss a variety of issues affecting the LP-led market and the drivers of underlying deal volume, including the regulatory developments that may spur or hinder LP-led portfolio sales in the coming year, the rise of '40 Act capital, as well as new entrants.

Disruption Matters: Cultivating growth-first leadership

This episode is sponsored by AlixPartners

The Disruption Matters special podcast miniseries is back for its fourth season, and this year, leading industry experts will discuss how private markets can deliver “weatherproof growth”, despite the headwinds of a tech revolution, geopolitics and volatile global markets.

In this second episode, we focus on how best to assess, manage and, where necessary, recruit leaders capable of delivering growth in the face of such macroeconomic uncertainty. We learn about the very special “PhDs” that are fit for the moment, how technology can help with such a task, and how analog issues still matter most when it comes to leadership.

Guests include Ted Bililies, global co-leader of transformative leadership at AlixPartners; Jason McDannold, Americas co-leader of private equity at AlixPartners; Hoyoung Pak, global co-leader, AI and data at AlixPartners; Allison Walker, head of talent for FTV Capital; Tyler Wolfram, managing partner of Oak Hill Capital Partners; Ditte Marstrand Wulf, head of leadership and culture at Triton; Andrew Weinberg, founder, CEO and co-chair of Brightstar Capital Partners; and Erik Brooks, founder and managing partner of Ethos Capital.

For further reading on this show’s topics:

• Transformative Leadership: What it is and why it matters
• The Golden Age Of AI Experimentation For CEOs | AlixPartners (part one of two)
• AI Alone Won’t See Companies Succeed: Leadership Will | AlixPartners (part two of two)

Clips

• Any Given Sunday, Oliver Stone, Warner Bros.
• Patton, Franklin J Schaffner, 20th Century Fox
• Stand and Deliver, Ramón Menéndez, Warner Bros.

CMBS sees swift rebound after market turmoil

Having navigated headwinds from interest rate hikes and secular shifts in office usage and online shopping in recent years, the US commercial mortgage-backed securities market was seemingly embracing a full resurgence. In 2024, its origination hit a record $104.05 billion, a 165 percent increase from the previous year.  

While that momentum continued into the first quarter of 2025, it stumbled when the overall capital markets were taken on a volatile ride after the Trump administration’s announcement in April about massive changes in tariffs. As a result, April was a much quieter month for CMBS. Deals got pulled or paused, and there were fewer loans priced.  

Borrowers, issuers and bond buyers told PERE Credit that although the activities were slowed down by the unprecedented market volatility, the market stabilized swiftly, with spreads gradually grinding back and new originations returning going into May. 

Often viewed as a barometer of the broader commercial real estate market, the sector’s swift recovery after market turmoil signals the resilience of the industry in an uncertain macroeconomic environment. In this episode, Zachary Cohn, managing director at Brookfield Asset Management, and James Stouse, senior director of CMBS credit research at Barings, shared their observations on the CMBS resurgence. 

For more insights on this, see PERE Credit‘s June/July cover story.

Disruption Matters: Orchestrating change in disruptive times

This episode is sponsored by AlixPartners

The Disruption Matters special podcast miniseries is back for its fourth season, and this year, leading industry experts will discuss how private markets can still deliver “weatherproof growth”, despite the headwinds of a revolution in tech, geopolitics and global markets.

In this first episode, we set the stage by acknowledging the unique pressures of the moment, as well as what they have in common with covid and how they differ. Our experts then detail the best practices around 100-day response plans, which are all-hands-on-deck sprints to respond to pressures on a company’s fortunes. Sustained discipline and collaborating with customers prove to be the keys to unlocking the latent potential of a disruption. As one panelist puts it, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”

Guests include Jason McDannold, co-lead of the private equity practice at AlixPartners; Hoyoung Pak, partner, managing director and global co-lead of the AI & Data Practice Group at AlixPartners; Mary Rachide, a managing director with ICV Partners; Bert Notini, a managing director at New Mountain Capital and co-lead of the firm’s operating partner group; and John Sander, a principal in portfolio solutions at Lightyear Capital.

PEI 300: What's behind private equity's fundraising plateau?

The growth of private equity fundraising is slowing down.

The 300 firms that feature on the 2025 edition of the PEI 300 – Private Equity International’s annual ranking of the industry’s biggest fundraisers – collectively raised $3.29 trillion over the preceding five years. While still a record high for the industry, the level of year-on-year growth is a departure from prior iterations.

On average, the PEI 300 grows by 11 percent in total capital raising each year. The 0.3 percent rise in this year’s ranking may therefore be a cause for concern, market sources tell us.

In this episode of Spotlight, PEI editor Helen de Beer, senior editor Adam Le and Americas correspondent Hannah Zhang delve into the reasons behind this fundraising flatline and examine some of the bright spots that exist beyond the headline numbers.

Click here to see this year's PEI 300 ranking and full coverage.

Click here to learn more about the Nexus conference in Orlando, February 22-25, 2026

As the US real estate debt market resets, private credit steps in

This episode is sponsored by LaSalle Debt Investors and Kayne Anderson 

In the wake of rising rates and falling transaction volumes, US real estate debt markets are undergoing a significant transformation. Traditional lenders – especially regional banks – have stepped back, opening space for private credit providers to play a larger role.

As a looming wave of loan maturities approaches, participants are preparing for both stress and opportunity. They're deploying capital selectively, often in the form of rescue financing, while building platforms that can flex across cycles. What emerges isn’t a market in freefall or overdrive, but a reset where discipline and structure matter more than ever.

Joining us in this episode is David Selznick, chief investment officer of Kayne Anderson’s real estate group, and Craig Oram, president and fund manager at LaSalle Debt Investors. They share how their firms are adapting by focusing on refinancings, leaning into necessity-based assets like multifamily and industrial, and underwriting with more scrutiny than ever before.

Infrastructure’s digital age

This episode is sponsored by Edmond de Rothschild and Palistar Capital and first appeared on The Infrastructure Investor Podcast 

Digital infrastructure is developing rapidly, turbocharged first by the coronavirus pandemic and now by advances in artificial intelligence, which have turned data centres into arguably the hottest investment in infrastructure at the moment. The sector also includes fibre and towers, both of which are also attracting strong investor interest.

This episode focuses on the growth of – and opportunities within – digital infrastructure’s three key subsectors. Jean-Francis Dusch, global head of infrastructure and structured finance at EdR, and Josh Oboler, investment partner at Palistar Capital, explore how AI is transforming the data centre landscape, where to find the best opportunities in fibre, and why towers continue to make such a good investment.

Redefining finance leadership

Finance leadership is changing rapidly. So how are leaders adapting to these changes and redefining traditional finance roles to enhance operational efficiency? In this episode, we conclude our three-part New Faces of Finance miniseries by talking to three 2025 honorees about the changes they are making at their respective firms.

Joining us are Dorothy Walter, partner and CFO at Alpine Investors; Pete Keenan, vice president of finance at 645 Ventures; and Jessica Shearer, partner at Proskauer Rose, who discuss what it takes to modernize traditional finance functions and how finance professionals are adapting to the demands of emerging technologies that are transforming the industry.

The role of finance leaders is evolving in several ways and will continue to do so in the years to come. Keenan explores the evolution of finance roles, from a backward-looking reporting function into a more proactive data-driven decision-making engine, and stresses the role of keeping up with emerging technologies. Walter highlights her philosophy on building a team with a diverse skill set and hiring from non-traditional backgrounds. Shearer emphasizes the importance of actions individual leaders are taking at their respective firms. Additionally, all speakers discuss how to overcome challenges in scaling operations and how they’re future-proofing financial processes.

How tariff turbulence is hitting private markets

The 'U-word' has well and truly returned to private markets. Uncertainty has dominated conversations the first half of April, as the back-and-forth tariff announcements have deepened the pause in dealmaking.

For the private equity industry, the trade war adds unwelcome distractions to an industry already grappling with challenges including lower distributions, higher interest rates, a difficult fundraising environment, consolidation and fundamental changes.

In this episode, editors from PEI Group's various titles covering the M&A market, deals, secondaries, LP insight and GPs analyze the private equity industry's response to the tariffs and volatility; where the challenges and opportunities lie; and what market participants are keeping their eyes on.

In this episode:

• Adam Le, senior editor, EMEA, private equity, PEI
• Mary Kathleen Flynn, editor-in-chief, PE Hub
• Graham Bippart, senior editor, Buyouts and Private Funds CFO
• Madeleine Farman, editor, Secondaries Investor

See also: Tariff turmoil: What do PE professionals think?
Read in:

• Buyouts
• PE Hub
• Private Equity International
• Secondaries Investor

Sweden’s bank-dominated real estate market ‘needs’ alternative lenders

In 2022, the Swedish real estate sector was one of several European property markets expected to see significant distress following the rapid rise in borrowing costs. Speculation grew over the fate of companies with huge refinancing needs, and it appeared to be a moment for non-bank lenders to provide an alternative source of debt.

Sweden’s policy rate is now among the lowest in Europe, while a material recovery in real estate transactions is also underway. Bank lenders remain the dominant source of debt capital by far. However, there is a growing community of non-bank lenders that believe the domination of banks in the sector is set to recede, regardless of recovery.

In this podcast, Lucy Scott explores the opportunities ahead for alternative lenders in one of the most bank-dominated real estate lending markets in Europe.

Interviewed in this episode:

• Lesley Lanefelt, head of Nordic investments at Velo Capital and partner at Urban Partners
• Frans Heijbel, managing director, Heimstaden
• Pontus Sundin, chief executive of Niam Credit
• Maarit Nordmark, chief executive of Kinnerton Capital, head of credit Sweden & Finland

How emerging technologies are transforming litigation finance

Innovation and emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and legal tech, are transforming the finance industry faster than ever before. In this episode, we present the second instalment of our three-part New Faces of Finance miniseries.

Joining us is Louisa Klouda, founder and CEO of Fenchurch Legal, who shares her perspective on how innovation is driving transformation in the litigation finance industry, and what unique opportunities are arising as a result.

Technology is not only streamlining processes, improving risk assessment and predicting outcomes in new ways, but it is also crucial for finance firms to balance innovation with stability. Klouda explains how firms managing complex portfolios can leverage technology to enhance security as well as how innovation can pave the way for new tools and capabilities. Additionally, she discusses key trends that finance professionals should focus on, particularly when it comes to building AI models for smarter, data-driven investment decisions.

How specialised can the secondaries market get?

This episode is sponsored by Evercore, Davis Polk and Dawson Partners and first appeared on Secondaries Investor's Second Thoughts podcast

The secondaries market sits at a crossroads. Never before have LPs been presented with such an array of different liquidity offerings to back. There are specialised secondaries funds focusing on healthcare, on impact investing, on real assets in Asia or on acquiring direct minority equity stakes in companies in India. There are funds focusing on writing large cheques to multi-billion-dollar single-asset continuation funds; and there are funds focusing on making late primary commitments to buyout funds that are still in their fundraising mode. In short, if you’re an LP looking to back a secondaries fund, you’re spoiled for choice.

In this special episode, we sit down with Nigel Dawn, global head of Evercore's Private Capital Advisory group; Leor Landa, head of the investment management practice at Davis Polk; and Yann Robard, managing partner at Dawson Partners. We discuss why the performance of continuation funds is key to the further growth and branching out of this part of the market, and why the market is undergoing the fastest pace of innovation it has ever seen.

Mentorship and the future of finance talent

Mentorship is a critical driver of success in finance, especially in Africa, where diverse talent pipelines and investment challenges shape the industry. In this episode, we begin our three-part New Faces of Finance miniseries.

Joining us is Doris Odit Achenga, founder of Odit Frontier Partners, who shares her insights on fostering emerging talent, navigating investment landscapes and the role of mentorship in building a sustainable private equity ecosystem.

 

Inside the semi-liquid fund boom

No development has impacted the private equity market over the past year like the rise of semi-liquid and evergreen funds. Semi-liquid/evergreen funds are similar to mutual funds in that investors can buy in one day, sell another day and access a seeded portfolio from the moment capital is invested.

GPs seemed to launch some kind of semi-liquid fund on a weekly basis last year, with ICG, Pantheon, Coller Capital and Ardian being examples of firms that launched or said they would launch such vehicles last year.

In this episode, we sit down with Richard Hope, co-head of investments at global asset manager Hamilton Lane, to discuss semi-liquid funds and why they're one of the hottest topics in private markets.

The energy transition’s next era

This episode is sponsored by Nuveen and Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners

The state of renewable energy is a series of contradictions. On the one hand, solar panels are cheaper, but they may not stay that way with the threat of tariffs from the incoming Trump Administration. Distributed energy and behind-the-meter power generation are promising, but there are persistent structural obstacles, especially around microgrids. Meanwhile, AI projects require more and more energy while so many grids are already struggling to meet current needs.  

So what does this mean for energy investors today? Will the Trump Administration curb progress on renewables in favour of fossil fuels, or will energy demands boost every alternative available? Where are the opportunities worth pursuing and what technologies are living up to their promise?

In this episode, we’ll discuss these questions and more with Don Dimitrievich, the senior managing director and portfolio manager for energy infrastructure credit at Nuveen, and David Scaysbrook, a co-founder and managing partner of Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners.

This episode first appeared on The Infrastructure Investor Podcast on 9 January 2025

Secrets to raising a first-time fund in 2025

What does it take for new teams – first-time GPs and spin-out GPs – to succeed in today’s environment? That's a question we put to Warren Hibbert, founder and managing partner at Asante Capital, a placement agent and advisory firm.

Asante has raised capital for firms including GRO Capital, eevolve, Maguar Capital Partners and Artá Capital. The firm was the second-most active placement agent for private equity emerging manager capital-raising in Private Equity International's Placement Agent Ranking 2024, having helped sponsors raise $2.21 billion in capital over the relevant period.

In this episode, Hibbert discusses how to set a target for a first-time fund, why track record and team cohesion are critical, and why emerging managers in today's environment need to hold a one-and-done final close.

NZ Super on why a total portfolio approach can both help and hinder PE portfolios

California Public Employees' Retirement System, the US's largest public pension, last year introduced to its board a radically different method of investing: the total portfolio approach.

TPA has already been adopted by multiple sovereign investors around the world, including Australia's Future Fund and the New Zealand Superannuation Fund.

In this episode, PEI Group Hong Kong bureau chief Alex Lynn sits down with Doug Bell, investment strategy director at NZ Super, to discuss the benefits and disadvantages of TPAs when constructing a private equity portfolio capable of delivering long-term results.

NZ Super has NZ$80.4 billion ($46 billion; €44 billion) in assets under management and is now led by two new co-CIOs. It began the process of rebuilding its buyouts portfolio from scratch this year.

The ‘good boring’ approach to private credit

This episode is sponsored by Golub Capital

Private credit has enjoyed massive growth for more than a decade, but there are real questions about what happens when conditions are less favourable. How can lenders that launched during the good times continue to succeed when the market changes?

David Golub of Golub Capital knows from experience. Golub Capital was founded 30 years ago and has performed well in all kinds of market conditions. One of Golub Capital’s strengths involves a ’good boring’ approach, which aims to minimise the excitement of market swings and focus on delivering consistently for its stakeholders.

In this episode, David discusses Golub Capital's founding and its evolution through the financial crisis and the pandemic. We'll look at how cultivating close, long-term relationships with sponsors can improve every stage of the deal process, and why remaining focused on companies in resilient sectors where the firm has deep expertise has helped Golub Capital remain consistent, even in times of ‘bad interesting’.

Is America’s energy transition safe in Trump’s hands?

This episode is sponsored by Nuveen and Igneo Infrastructure Partners

With the American electorate recently handing the White House back to Donald Trump, it seems like an opportune time to unpack what it could all mean for the infrastructure asset class – in particular, the US commitment to renewables and the energy transition. Trump is, after all, the man who previously removed the world’s largest economy from the Paris Climate Accord and has since sounded less than supportive of President Biden’s initiatives to stimulate the economy and create jobs through a series of infra-led federal legislation.

So, is the Inflation Reduction Act in danger of being repealed? Does global capital have cause to be jittery? Or is the case for renewables infrastructure now simply too strong for even a sceptical Trump-led administration to deny.

Helping us to address these questions and concerns are John Ma, a partner and co-head of Igneo Infrastructure Partners’ North America team, and Don Dimitrievich, the senior managing director and portfolio manager for energy infrastructure credit at Nuveen.

Peeling back the onion on secondaries in 2024 – literally

Please enjoy this crossover episode from Secondaries Investor's Second Thoughts podcast, which recently moved to its own channel. To continue getting new episodes, subscribe at secondariesinvestor.com/podcast or search for Secondaries Investor's Second Thoughts wherever you like to listen.

It's common to peel back the onion on key events and trends seen across financial markets. As the secondaries market heads for what is predicted to be a record-setting year for volume, we decided to practice the phrase quite literally.

Madeleine Farman, senior reporter and host of the Second Thoughts, and senior editor Adam Le are joined by Carlo Pirzio-Biroli, head of CVC Secondary Partners, and Ted Cardos, co-head of Kirkland & Ellis's European liquidity solutions team, with the group letting a basket of onions decide the talking points.

Pirzio-Biroli and Cardos discuss key wins, disappointments and developments over the course of 2024 and what the next 12 months could bring for the secondaries market.

A golden era for opportunistic lending

This episode is sponsored by Sculptor Capital Management

The last 24 months have been a period of uncertainty and volatility in credit markets, with rising inflation and higher interest rates putting borrower capital structures under pressure and making it difficult for lenders to price risk.

These headwinds have proven challenging for mainstream lenders. But for opportunistic credit investors, it has provided a window to unlock attractive risk-adjusted returns in situations that are obscured by complexity.

In this episode, we sit down with Jimmy Levin, the chief investment officer of Sculptor Capital, a global alternative investment manager with more than $20 billion of credit assets under management across corporate, asset based and real estate credit. He discusses the opportunistic credit investment opportunity set, reflects on how it’s reshaping old thinking about the credit default cycle, and explores other strategies – notably, asset based finance – that benefit opportunistic lenders who can operate free of constraints.

Trump, fees on co-investments and how semi-liquids are affecting GP behaviour

Private markets are becoming more accessible to non-institutional investors, as the rise in semi-liquid vehicles this year demonstrates. At the same time, the industry is facing certain potential headwinds or tailwinds, depending on which region you're based in, as law firm Dechert's 2025 Global Private Equity Outlook survey has found.

In this episode, partners Sabina Comis and Chris Field sit down with Private Equity International senior editor Adam Le to discuss the results of the law firm's latest survey, which examines these issues and more.

In this podcast, Comis and Field also discuss:

• The expected impact of the US election on PE portfolios
• Regulatory scrutiny
• Fee structuring, including on co-investments
• Secondaries transaction activity and deal volume

For more private markets insights, check out privateequityinternational.com

Aware Super's checklist for emerging managers

Australian superannuation fund Aware Super opened its first overseas office in London last year and has wasted little time deploying capital. The fund, which manages A$170 billion ($110 billion; €105 billion) on behalf of predominantly nurses and teachers in Australia, quickly set on a plan to invest £5 billion ($6.3 billion; €6 billion) in the UK. It is almost halfway through that plan and most recently invested $370 million to acquire a stake in renewable energy group Octopus Energy.

In this episode, senior editor Adam Le sits down with Damien Webb, deputy chief investment officer and head of international, to discuss what the superfund looks for when it backs emerging managers (spoiler alert: it's more than just track record).

Webb also discusses how the fund invests in both funds and directs, its outlook on UK investments and how it plans to deploy more capital into secondaries.

Disruption Matters: Embarking on the next era of value creation

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 the sixth and final episode of this season, we delve into how best to begin creating value using AI and other cutting-edge technology. It's no surprise that picking the right priorities is key, but so is staffing and senior management buy-in. With so many service providers, systems and apps in the market making so many promises, it's hard to imagine where to begin the process. While every GP and every portfolio company has unique needs and challenges, we offer the first principles that should guide listeners, no matter the size or strategy of the firm.

Guests include Matt Katz, global head of data science at Blackstone; Chris Satchell, managing director of tech and digital at Clayton, Dubilier and Rice; Raj Kushwaha, co-head of value creation and chief digital officer at Warburg Pincus; Misha Logvinov, a managing director at MGX; Tim Kiely, operating principal at BayPine; Hoyoung Pak, global co-lead of the AI & Data Practice Group at AlixPartners; and Jason McDannold, Americas co-lead, Private Equity, at AlixPartners.

Behind the numbers: Elevating transparency in private market valuations and benchmarking

This episode is sponsored by Scientific Infra and Private Assets

Abhishek Gupta and Tim Whittaker from Scientific Infra and Private Assets discuss the growing demand within private markets for accurate and robust data. They explore solutions that can address these needs, ultimately providing the private markets with comprehensive, high-quality valuations and reliable benchmarks.

Top tips from female founders in alternatives

Female founders continue to be underrepresented and underfunded. Women only accounted for 13.2 percent of all startups in 2023, according to data from software company Carta. This was down from 15.1 percent in 2022. So, it is safe to say progress has been slow.

However, in private markets, there are positive signs that the number of women founding firms and raising capital is increasing, albeit it from a low base. According to Venture Capital Journal, funds in which at least half of the founding partners are women accounted for just over 3 percent of global venture fundraising in 2023, up from 1.9 percent the previous year.

We decided to delve into this further, looking at what can be done to ensure the number of female founders continues to increase.

Earlier this month, PEI Group revealed its annual Women of Influence in Private Markets list 2024, which this year celebrates 42 inspiring women working in alternatives. For the second episode in this two-part miniseries, we spoke to some of the women featured in the list – each of whom have built businesses from the ground up – to discuss the keys to their success.

This episode includes Courtney Russell McCrea, co-founder and managing partner at Recast Capital; Eva Shang, CEO and co-founder at Legalist; and Rayenne Chen, partner at EQT and a founding member of the EQT Exeter team. They offer advice to women looking to start their own business.

Catch the first episode of our Women of Influence podcast miniseries, which is all about mentoring, here.

Disruption Matters: Optimizing talent for this new era

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 fifth episode, we discuss tech's role in recruiting, onboarding and developing talent. Along the way, we address how best to recruit Gen Z, the limits of AI in this particular arena and how tech is changing the nature of talent management as a discipline. With tech tackling so many of the rudimentary tasks around talent management, human capital professionals will be freed up to focus on the more complicated tasks around motivation, evaluation and leadership. In short, tech may make some duties simpler, but the key challenges of managing people will still need to be addressed by humans.

Guests include Christopher P Trendler, managing director and head of portfolio talent at Madison Dearborn Partners; Nicole Jones, talent director, portfolio support group at Advent International; John Sander, principal, portfolio solutions at Lightyear Capital; and Ted Bililies, the global leader of transformative leadership at AlixPartners.

Clips
- Her. Spike Jonze, Annapurna Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures
- M3GAN. Akela Cooper, Universal Pictures

Can mentoring help close the private markets gender gap?

Women are still underrepresented across private markets, while reaching senior positions remains particularly challenging. In light of this, we decided to take a deep dive into how mentoring can serve as a tool for success and empower women working in the industry.

Last week, PEI Group revealed its annual Women of Influence in Private Markets list 2024, which this year celebrates 42 inspiring women working in alternatives. For the first episode in this two-part miniseries, we spoke to some of the women featured in the list to discuss the keys to mentoring success.

In this episode, Patricia Miller Zollar, a managing director at Neuberger Berman; Rosalind Smith-Maxwell, a director at Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners; and Jackie Rantanen, head of investor solutions at Hamilton Lane, discuss their personal mentoring experiences and explore how well the industry is doing in supporting up and coming talent.

Read more about this year’s Women of Influence in Private Markets list here.

Disruption Matters: How tech supercharges today's roll-ups

This episode is sponsored by AlixPartners

The Disruption Matters special podcast series 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 fourth episode, we discuss tech's role in improving the speed, rigour and ease of roll-up strategies, where a private equity firm acquires a platform company in a fragmented industry and uses M&A to consolidate targets to create a market leader. It's a popular strategy for the simple reason: it's worked so well in recent years. We'll look at what today's cutting-edge tools, including AI, can do for roll-up strategies, and where human expertise and experience still can't be replaced.

Guests include David Poole, partner, executive chair of digital at Stanley Capital; Max Julian Kaye, principal at Battery Ventures; Saurabh Singh, partner at AlixPartners; Jason McDannold, partner and managing director at AlixPartners; and Hoyoung Pak, partner and managing director at AlixPartners.

Clips
-"People," Barbara Streisand. Funny Girl. Capitol
-"Human Touch," Bruce Springsteen. Human Touch. Columbia

Identifying the office of the future

Despite being plagued by headwinds including high interest rates, shrinking demand and declining property values since the start of the covid-19 pandemic, the office sector is starting to see some green shoots as usage and leasing rise. 

In this episode, Jim Costello, executive director and co-head of the real-assets team at MSCI, and Ran Eliasaf, founder and managing partner of New York-based real estate private equity firm Northwind, see growing signs of stabilization – and believe this trend is starting to extend outside of class A assets in gateway markets.  

Additionally, there is a rise in creative thinking about how to use older properties, including converting vintage office stock to other uses, and even acquiring office properties on a low basis and doing a complete renovation. 

For more insights on this, please see PERE Credit's October/November cover story here. 

Private credit lenders seize the moment in Europe

This episode is sponsored by Arrow Global

Private debt has enjoyed sustained success in recent years, with private credit firms stepping in to fill the void left by the retreat of banks from their traditional lending role. The outlook for the asset class in Europe remains strong, as firms continue to find compelling opportunities, even in sectors that face market headwinds.

A persistent supply-demand imbalance in the housing market across most European countries means that residential real estate is a particularly attractive sector for lenders. Changing work patterns are also giving a long-term boost to parts of the hospitality real estate sector, with southern European markets able to take advantage of a boom in demand.

In this episode, Zach Lewy, founder and CEO of Arrow Global, discusses how asset-backed lending enables private credit firms to minimise risk while capitalising on emerging opportunities. Success, he notes, hinges on maintaining strategic discipline in a landscape ripe with potential.

SI Decade: is Asia-Pacific the most promising secondaries market?

This episode is sponsored by Kirkland & Ellis, LGT Capital Partners and TPG NewQuest

The Asia-Pacific secondaries market is one of the most fascinating corners of the global secondaries landscape. This region typically never accounts for more than single-digit figures in terms of global deal volume share – yet some of the most innovative transactions have come out of the APAC market over the years.

In this episode of our Decade of Secondaries Investing miniseries, we sit down with Brooke Zhou, partner at LGT Capital Partners; Michelle Cheh, partner at Kirkland & Ellis; and Darren Massara, managing partner at TPG NewQuest, to discuss what types of deals have happened over the last 10 years in the Asia-Pacific region.

We explore Renminbi-to-US dollar restructurings and why these have taken a back seat in 2024; why valuations are a more complex issue when it comes to Asia-Pacific GPs than their global counterparts; the different drivers of dealflow in the various markets in APAC and what types of opportunities these are bringing about; and why the regulations affecting GP-led secondaries deals in the US and western Europe have had little impact on APAC secondaries transactions.

For full coverage of our Decade of Secondaries Investing series, including all podcast episodes and an interactive timeline, click here.

Disruption Matters: Managing the middle

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.

What stabilizing base rates mean for commercial real estate

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.

How to get into the SI 50: Inside our latest ranking of the biggest secondaries fundraisers

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

Carry tax increase in the UK: Anarchy for PE or a new reality?

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.

Navigating the Asian private credit opportunity

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.

Infrastructure debt: 'A critical part of the capital solution'

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.

Infrastructure firms look to accelerate the energy transition in Europe

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.

NAV finance steps into the mainstream

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.

SI Decade: Europe’s appeal and the evolution of specialisation

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.

Disruption Matters: The future of due diligence

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.

PEI's Future 40 on finding a niche in private equity

The private equity industry is increasingly recognising the value of encouraging PE professionals to pursue more niche investing and operational strategies at their institutions.

In this episode of Spotlight, three of Private Equity International's 40 under 40: Future Leaders of Private Equity 2024 listees – Lamar Cardinez, a principal at Blue Owl Capital; Ngoc Can, portfolio director, co-investments at Texas Municipal Retirement System; and Richard Pearce, a partner at ECI Partners – discuss the challenges and opportunities associated with leveraging their expertise to find new streams of revenue. They also share their career advice for the next generation of PE professionals.

Disruption Matters: The digital promise

This series is sponsored by AlixPartners

The Disruption Matters special podcast miniseries is back for season three: AI and the future of value creation. This year, leading industry experts will discuss how private markets can best use today’s technologies to create value.

In this first episode, The digital promise: Threats and opportunities, we set the stage by getting a reality check around what today’s AI solutions can and can’t do. While AI-related tech has enormous potential, firms need to select their use cases wisely, tailored to the unique needs of a given business. And like any other technology, it’s only as good as its implementation, which is still governed by the timeless demands of any change management. But managers don’t have the luxury of waiting for others to develop best practices; at the current pace of innovation, there’s too great a risk of being left behind.

Guests in this episode include Jason McDannold and Hoyoung Pak, partners and managing directors at AlixPartners; David Bonasia, head of value creation for the Americas for Brookfield Asset Management’s PE business; Blythe Masters, a founding partner of Motive Partners; Ashish Chandarana, head of portfolio optimisation and partner at Veritas Capital; Luke Chan, a partner with HighVista Strategies; Michael Zeller, head, AI strategy and solutions at Temasek; and Catherine Brien, a partner and managing director at AlixPartners.

Clips:
-2001: A Space Odyssey. Stanley Kubrick Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C Clarke.
-The Terminator. Hemdale, Pacific Western Productions, Euro Film Funding Cinema '84, Orion Pictures, James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd.
-Her. Warner Bros Pictures, Annapurna Pictures, Spike Jonze.

Inside the latest PEI 300 of private equity's heaviest hitters

The PEI 300 ranking of private equity's biggest fundraisers is becoming an even more exclusive club: this year, a manager needed to have raised at least $2.3 billion over the preceding five-year period, up from $2.08 billion in the previous ranking.

The 300 firms in this year's ranking raised a whopping $3.28 trillion between them – a 6 percent year-on-year increase. In the top 10 alone, these firms raised $741 billion, up more than $10 billion from the previous ranking.

In this episode of Spotlight, PEI senior editor Adam Le, Americas correspondent Hannah Zhang and Hong Kong bureau chief Alex Lynn delve into the figures of this year's PEI 300 to look at a few trends including: GP stakes firms' positions in the ranking; the movement of Asia-Pacific-headquartered firms in the list; and why GP-LP communication is more important than ever when it comes to fundraising.

SI Decade: How the secondaries industry can empower women

The private equity industry has been pushing for more gender equality among GPs, LPs and intermediaries over the past decade, and the trend is now taking hold in the secondaries market, where diversity issues have historically received less attention.

In recent years, women across secondaries have been advocating for empowerment movements and forming support groups, including the Women in Secondaries network launched by Coller Capital and Akin Gump in 2020, as well as the WINS initiative backed in 2021 by five industry professionals representing the buyside, advisory, lending and legal sectors.

For those who have made it to senior roles, the priority is to retain, promote and elevate other women. In this eighth episode of the Decade of Secondaries Investing miniseries, Americas correspondent Hannah Zhang sits down with two women pioneers to discuss how the secondaries industry can promote gender equality. They are Francesca Paveri, senior managing director at investment bank Evercore, and Tori Buffery, senior director of secondaries at Nicola Wealth and senior adviser at Morningside Capital.

For full coverage of our Decade of Secondaries Investing series, including all podcast episodes and an interactive timeline, click here.

SI Decade: Why specialised secondaries are poised for growth

Specialised secondaries strategies are becoming an increasingly important part of the market. According to data complied by Secondaries Investor, 85 percent of the capital raised by secondaries funds in final closes last year was for private equity strategies; the remainder of this was for non-PE strategies, and the year before that more than one-third of capital raised was for non-PE strategies.

There is also increasing specialisation within private equity secondaries, as firms including Lexington Partners, Strategic Partners, AlpInvest Partners and LGT Capital Partners carve out teams to focus on single-asset continuation funds.

In episode seven of the Decade of Secondaries Investing miniseries, senior editor Adam Le sits down with Jeremy Coller, chief investment officer and managing partner at Coller Capital, and Yann Robard, managing partner at Dawson Partners, to discuss how far the asset class has come in terms of specialisation and cross-asset-class appeal.

• For full coverage of our Decade of Secondaries Investing series, including all podcast episodes and an interactive timeline, click here.
• Listen: "Everything you wanted to know about preferred equity"

Clean energy: More capital will come in 2024

This episode is sponsored by Nuveen Infrastructure and NextEnergy Capital

Clean energy is key to turning the world’s net-zero ambitions into a reality, an argument few would contest. So the IEA’s 2023 World Energy Investment report, which showed that clean energy investing rose at a faster rate than investment in fossil fuels in the period between 2021 and 2023, offers plenty of cause for optimism that the world is on the right path to tackling the climate crisis.

But it’s not moving fast enough, according to the United Nations, which has warned that government commitments are falling well short of what’s required to deliver net zero by 2050. It says that billions in capital must be ploughed into the energy transition to end reliance on polluting fuels.

In this episode of Spotlight, Infrastructure Investor’s Helen Lewer speaks to Joost Bergsma, global head of clean energy at Nuveen Infrastructure, and Michael Bonte-Friedheim, founder and group CEO of NextEnergy Capital, to gauge whether institutional capital’s loyalty to the agenda has wavered amid a difficult fundraising backdrop. Their conclusion? With many LPs under-allocated to infrastructure and the fundamentals for clean energy investing still sound, they expect more capital to flow into the space in 2024 and beyond. But managers with track records will have an edge in the competition for capital.

SI Decade: The birth of programmatic secondaries sales

Post-global financial crisis, many institutional investors were forced sellers, offloading private markets exposure at hefty discounts. More than a decade on, these same institutional investors have become repeat sellers on the secondaries market, using the tool as a way to proactively manage their portfolios. How has LP sentiment toward the secondaries market changed, and what is the outlook for this mainstay of the sub-sector?

In this sixth episode of the Decade of Secondaries Investing miniseries, Secondaries Investor senior reporter Madeleine Farman sits down with Jeffrey Keay, managing director at HarbourVest Partners, and Adrian Millan, partner at PJT Park Hill. Keay and Millan take a deep dive into LP portfolio management and look at how institutional investors are using secondaries as a tool to manage private markets exposure.

We look into the evolution of programmatic secondaries sales and explore the drivers and dynamics behind why some institutional investors are repeat sellers of private markets exposure.

• For full coverage of our Decade of Secondaries Investing series, including all podcast episodes and an interactive timeline, click here
• Read: "Liquidity the primary use case for GPs looking to enter secondaries processes – PJT"
• Read: "Evercore: distressed sellers 1% of 2013 market volume"

The sustainable boom in private credit

This episode is sponsored by the Credit Investments Group (CIG)

Private credit has expanded exponentially in recent years, with most citing the contraction in syndicated markets as the cause of that growth. But now those markets are opening back up, and questions linger about how that will affect private credit.

So what do continued inflation and elevated interest rates mean for today's managers? What does private credit look like now, and how will it adapt to a new macroeconomic landscape? Will private credit shrink in the wake of access to public credit, or will the two co-exist to provide a full suite of financing options to their clients?

In this episode, we'll look back at the causes of private credit's recent boom, how much of that boom might continue, and what the future of lending is likely to be in the coming years. We’re joined by Kevin Lawi, private credit portfolio manager and head of origination at the Credit Investments Group in UBS Asset Management (formerly known as Credit Suisse Asset Management), along with his colleague on the public side, David Mechlin, a US portfolio manager and member of the CIG Corporate Credit Committee.