Business Day

Following a Robust Year, Private Equity Firms Arm Themselves for Turbulence

Private equity turned in another surprisingly solid year.

By Hugh MacArthur, Graham Elton and Andrei Vorobyov

Published on April 18, 2016
min read


This article originally appeared on BusinessDay. With its complex interplay of fundraising, investments, exits and returns carried out on a global scale against kaleidoscopic shifts in the business cycle, credit conditions and regulatory environment, a year in private equity is a lifetime in most other industries. The global economic expansion showed signs of strain amid continued record-low interest rates, feverish competition that had investment multiples skirting record highs and increased volatility in public equity markets, presenting many challenges in 2015. Yet private equity turned in another surprisingly solid year. As we explain in Bain & Company’s Global Private Equity Report 2016, private equity’s vital signs remained healthy in 2015. Exits in 2015 rode a tsunami of corporate mergers and acquisitions activity as cash-rich strategic acquirers set out to buy growth. Private equity returns once again began to widen their performance edge over the public markets, reinforcing investor confidence. The eagerness of limited partners to recycle a flood of cash distributions back into their best-performing asset class enabled private equity firms of just about all sizes, areas of focus and performance track records to hit or exceed their targets. New investments by private equity funds remained robust despite sky-high asset valuations and growing uncertainty in the debt markets as general partners discovered new ways to deploy capital. Read the full article at BusinessDay. Hugh MacArthur and Graham Elton are leaders of Bain & Company’s Private Equity Group. Andrei Vorobyov is a Bain & Company partner based in Johannesburg where he leads Africa's private equity and M&A practices.

This article originally appeared on BusinessDay.

With its complex interplay of fundraising, investments, exits and returns carried out on a global scale against kaleidoscopic shifts in the business cycle, credit conditions and regulatory environment, a year in private equity is a lifetime in most other industries.

The global economic expansion showed signs of strain amid continued record-low interest rates, feverish competition that had investment multiples skirting record highs and increased volatility in public equity markets, presenting many challenges in 2015. Yet private equity turned in another surprisingly solid year.

As we explain in Bain & Company’s Global Private Equity Report 2016, private equity’s vital signs remained healthy in 2015. Exits in 2015 rode a tsunami of corporate mergers and acquisitions activity as cash-rich strategic acquirers set out to buy growth. Private equity returns once again began to widen their performance edge over the public markets, reinforcing investor confidence.

The eagerness of limited partners to recycle a flood of cash distributions back into their best-performing asset class enabled private equity firms of just about all sizes, areas of focus and performance track records to hit or exceed their targets. New investments by private equity funds remained robust despite sky-high asset valuations and growing uncertainty in the debt markets as general partners discovered new ways to deploy capital.

Read the full article at BusinessDay.

Hugh MacArthur and Graham Elton are leaders of Bain & Company’s Private Equity Group. Andrei Vorobyov is a Bain & Company partner based in Johannesburg where he leads Africa's private equity and M&A practices.