PE Tech Report

NEWSLETTER

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US Best practice 2019

It was a privilege to host Private Equity Wire’s inaugural awards event in New York recently. And what a great event it turned out to be, despite the thunderstorm that hit right at the commencement of proceedings! Still, this did little to dampen the mood in the room.

Private Equity Wire partnered with PitchBook to pre-select managers based on their performance over the previous 12 months. The winners were then decided via a rigorous reader-choice online poll carried out over a period of ten weeks, based on who garnered the highest number of votes. Overall, 2,690 readers participated, of which 37 per cent were LPs, 39 per cent were GPs and 20 per cent were service providers.

We’ve all seen how this industry has grown from strength to strength over the last five or so years. Over a trillion dollars of assets were raised between 2017 and end of 2018, and through the first half of 2019, an estimated USD210 billion was raised. Megafunds continue to dominate new launch activity. Advent International’s latest fund is USD17.5 billion, while Vista Equity Partners just closed its latest technology buyout fund with USD16 billion. 

In addition, levels of dry powder have ballooned to USD1.54 trillion – an eye-watering amount. These are, without doubt, halcyon days for private equity. As one PE fund-of-fund manager recently told Private Equity Wire: “Private equity has shown its stickiness and ability to turn things around over time because managers do not have to sell and over time can recover notional losses, which one does not see with hedge funds.”

Private equity is the oil that greases the wheels of not just the US economy, but the global economy, creating bigger, better and more profitable companies, as well as new job opportunities. And as the world enters in to a new phase of digitalisation, the opportunities for PE managers to transform companies’ fortunes and invest in new areas of innovation – especially the likes of Healthcare where AI technology is revolutionising the industry – are huge. 

Not to mention the opportunities for GPs to invest in infrastructure. Take 5G, for example. The global 5G infrastructure market size was valued at USD720.6 million in 2018 and is projected to reach USD50.6 billion by the end of 2026, exhibiting a CAGR of 76.29 per cent, according to Fortune Business Insights. 

In short, there are plenty of opportunities in the middle and large-cap markets to put all of that dry powder to work. This will keep all of this year’s service provider winners busier than ever, as the PE space continues to grow from strength to strength. 

Delivering a commitment to excellent client service, whether it be to support GPs’ cybersecurity programmes, asset valuation and reporting requirements, or delivering key regulatory and compliance insights, is the common denominator distinguishing this year’s winners. 

Congratulations to everyone and on behalf of the Private Equity Wire team, we hope that your award-winning efforts will translate into new business opportunities as we head in to 2020.

James Williams
Editor in Chief, Private Equity Wire

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