Some of the most active professionals in the private equity industry shared their views on current market conditions, the deal making climate, and the operational challenges and possibilities brought on by the Covid-19 crisis, during the recent Private Equity Wire digital summit, PEWlive North America, which took place from 2-4 June. Here we share some of the findings from the live polls that were held throughout the three-day event…
Some of the most active professionals in the private equity industry shared their views on current market conditions, the deal making climate, and the operational challenges and possibilities brought on by the Covid-19 crisis, during the recent Private Equity Wire digital summit, PEWlive North America, which took place from 2-4 June. Here we share some of the findings from the live polls that were held throughout the three-day event…
Despite Covid-19 causing large sections of the global economy to slow dramatically, or even shut down completely, the majority of event participants, 70.4 per cent, expect the number of GP equity transactions to increase over the next 12 months.
Almost half of respondents (43.5 per cent) meanwhile, chose managing the deal process as the main obstacle to working effectively in the current environment, followed by the ability to monitor portfolio companies (30.4 per cent) and managing the internal team (17.4 per cent).
A quarter (25.8 per cent) said there had been no change in the firm’s ability to manage internal operations as well as its funds in the pandemic environment compared to pre-pandemic. Nearly half of participants, however, said they are either somewhat more efficient (45.2 per cent), or somewhat less efficient (29 per cent).
With regards to the extent that ESG factors will impact asset valuations over the next five years, one third believe they will have a moderate effect (31.3 per cent), while 28.1 per cent chose the “meaningful” option and 21.9 per cent “substantial”.
Close to half (47.1 per cent) said the biggest focus for COOs/CFOs in the current environment is stabilising portfolio companies. This was closely followed by introducing new processes and IT systems to improve efficiency (26.5 per cent) and wider collaboration with the deal team and the portfolio management team.
An overwhelming majority (83.1 per cent) think virtual ODD will become widely adopted by the private equity industry over the coming decade. The area where most people believe technology can drive maximum value for private equity firms is in reinventing the core – commercial, support and operations processes. Over a third (34 per cent) think tech can drive maximum value within portfolio monitoring and performance management.
Only ten per cent have more than ten quant specialists or data scientists within their firm. About half (47.5 per cent) have somewhere between zero and ten and 42.5 per cent said they don’t have any such roles at all.
