This report provides a timely, in-depth look at every major aspect of private equity. Building on the insights delivered in Bain & Company’s 2010 report, we have worked hard to sift through the complicated forces that buffeted PE markets in 2010 and will continue to shape them in 2011.

Since the financial crisis, industry participants have had to wrestle with significant new realities. Although trading conditions for private equity have improved over the past year and may strengthen further in 2011, industry participants will be required to adapt and evolve. PE firms need to reassess how they can continue to deliver superior returns when the traditional drivers they looked to in past years—GDP growth, multiple expansion, and friendly debt markets—no longer provide the lift they once did.

In the pages of this report, you will find Bain’s in-depth analysis of the journey the PE industry travelled in 2010 and where we see it going in the years ahead. We buttress our thinking with fresh data and with insights from surveys and interviews with leading industry insiders. We also bring to bear the experience and judgment that Bain & Company derives from its unparalleled position as the leading consulting partner to the private equity industry and its stakeholders.