North America

Communication, technology implementation and data visualisation are key to being an effective chief financial officer within the private equity industry, says Kwame Lewis, head of product innovation for fund services at TMF Group.

With the pandemic upending traditional attitudes towards location, investors are waking up to opportunities outside of the country’s traditional deal hotspots, say Stacey Relton and Maria Von Horvath from Sanne, an Apex Group company.

The era of great-power competition, which includes intensifying scrutiny, restrictions and regulation around the movement of capital, goods, data and technology, presents both challenges and opportunities, says Global Institute executive director Vance Serchuk.

Roll-up acquisition activity will continue until there is more stability in the larger end of the market, Partners Group chief executive David Layton said during its interim results call on Tuesday.

Stormy clouds for private equity marks are starting to emerge.

The $36bn pension, which counts Advent, TPG, Hg and Industry Ventures among its long-standing GP relationships, was overallocated to PE by more than 6 percentage points.

GPs running single-asset deals tend to like externally set pricing as it represents a market-based mark.

The music copyrights-focused PE firm is expanding its investment strategy with its fourth flagship vehicle.

For private equity, the closure of the IPO window cuts off one of the main exit paths for portfolio companies.

Overall, fundraising has slowed mightily from last year. In the first half, 417 buyout, growth, venture and other private equity vehicles raised almost $255bn.