Private Equity 101

Private equity firms could be on the verge of joining the global M&A resurgence, with buyout groups sitting on around $1.5tn of capital that could increasingly be deployed into acquisitions. Private equity buyouts, however, have accounted for just $286bn of that total, representing 8.2% across 680 deals out of 30,384 transactions.

The "exit problem" refers to the difficulty private equity firms currently face in selling companies they acquired during the peak valuation years of 2020 and 2021. High Purchase Prices: Deals struck during the market boom were executed at very high valuations. Rising Interest Rates: Increased interest rates have made debt-financed buyouts much more expensive, making it harder to justify the price tags and achieve the expected returns. Holding Back Assets: Many firms are choosing to hold onto these companies longer than anticipated, hoping that waiting for better market conditions will eventually yield a higher value. As a result, there is now a significant backlog of over 33,000 companies held by private equity firms, which has led to lower capital distributions to investors.

NVIDIA Partners With Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR to Establish AI Compute Infrastructure Financing Platforms to Mobilize Over $500 Billion of Third-Party Capital | NVIDIA Newsroom https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-partners-with-apollo-blackrock-blackstone-brookfield-goldman-sachs-and-kkr-to-establish-ai-compute-infrastructure-financing-platforms-to-mobilize-over-500-billion-of-third-party-capital

Mastering Rated Note Feeders https://www.valuationresearch.com/insights/mastering-private-equity-rated-note-feeder-strategies/

Private Equity: 1H 2026 in 10 Points • Global PE investment reached US$1.0 trillion in H1 2026, demonstrating resilience despite geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty. • Investors became increasingly selective, prioritizing fewer, larger, high-conviction deals, pushing rolling deal volume to a five-year low. • The Americas remained the largest investment destination (US$579.2B), while EMA hosted three of the world's four largest PE deals in Q2. • Energy & Natural Resources emerged as the standout sector (US$149.2B), driven by energy security concerns and AI's growing power requirements. • AI reshaped capital allocation. Investment shifted away from software toward AI infrastructure, data centers, industrial manufacturing and enabling technologies. • Exit values remained resilient, but exit volumes stayed subdued. Sponsors increasingly relied on secondaries and continuation vehicles to provide liquidity. • The Middle East conflict and Strait of Hormuz disruptions reinforced the importance of energy resilience, influencing sector and geographic investment decisions. • India continued attracting PE capital through family-owned businesses, healthcare, financial services and precision manufacturing, although elevated valuations remained a challenge. • PE firms increasingly focused on risk-adjusted returns, favoring transparent markets with strong long-term structural growth. • Looking ahead, the industry is watching US IPO market reopening, while AI infrastructure, energy transition and digital infrastructure remain the strongest investment themes for H2 2026.

Primer: Continuation Funds in Private Equity and Venture Capital - Lexology https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=4294614d-ccaa-4741-922f-ce842ae26803

The State of Private Markets 2026 | MSCI https://www.msci.com/research-and-insights/paper/the-state-of-private-markets-2026?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Carried Interest Loans Gain Popularity in Private Equity https://www.ennessglobal.com/insights/press/private-equity-leaders-turn-carried-interest-loans-payouts-slow

Evergreen PE funds in 2026 - final.pdf https://content.moonfare.com/hubfs/white-papers/Evergreen%20PE%20funds%20in%202026%20-%20final.pdf

Executive Summary The European Commission is exploring reforms to improve liquidity in private markets as part of its Savings and Investments Union agenda. Core issue: Private equity investors face limited exit options due to challenging IPO markets, fragmented secondary sales, limited valuation transparency, and overall illiquidity. Key proposal: Create a regulated, intermittent secondary trading platform for private company shares—essentially a private-company marketplace that opens during scheduled trading windows rather than operating continuously. Potential benefits for PE funds: Faster and more efficient exits Broader pool of potential buyers Improved price discovery and valuation transparency Reduced dependence on IPOs and M&A transactions Additional liquidity pathway for portfolio companies Consultation focus areas: Barriers to PE exits Inefficiencies in current exit routes Design of private-share trading markets Disclosure and investor-protection requirements Whether companies should be allowed to raise new capital on such platforms Why it matters: If implemented, these reforms could fundamentally improve how private equity investments are exited and valued, making private markets more attractive to institutional investors while bringing elements of public-market infrastructure into private markets. For PE fund administrators, this could represent one of the most important market-structure developments in Europe in recent years.

WEF_The_Future_of_Venture_Capital_2026.pdf https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Future_of_Venture_Capital_2026.pdf