IPEM Paris 2024: Inspiration Awaits!

IPEM Paris 2024: Inspiration Awaits!

Advisors - LC2021, News, PARIS 2024, PAST EVENTS

If ever there were a city to inspire new ideas, there’s no better place than Paris. Which seems altogether appropriate as the global private markets industry gathers September 9th – 11th for the 2nd edition of IPEM Paris, where this year’s theme will be “Forging Confidence”.

Building on the success of last year’s event, which welcomed over 6,000 delegates, IPEM will once again bring together a brains trust of global GPs and LPs at the Palais des Congrès. It is a key moment for the industry, as some investors look to increase their total private markets exposure, while others scale back. Fundraising has become much harder over the last 12 months, as private equity funds increasingly find themselves competing with private debt and infrastructure funds. Some GPs are more bullish on deal flow and exit opportunities than others, while ESG issues are becoming both more and less relevant, depending on the financial institution.

How then, to make sense of the divergence of views?

LP power shift means traditional allocation trends can no longer be assumed

LP power shift means traditional allocation trends can no longer be assumed

News, PARIS 2024, PAST EVENTS

How confident are LPs today as they assess their private markets portfolios and try to determine what the best path should be? It is a big question, made all the harder by the growing sense of uncertainty ahead of a historic period of global elections where more than 2 billion people will cast their votes.

“Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.” – Karl Von Clausewitz, Prussian general and military theorist.

Even though private equity still dominates total industry AUM like Jupiter dominates our solar system, some investors are finding virtue – and confidence – in other alternative assets such as private credit and infrastructure.

Meme - Even the KKR executives enjoyed the DJ spinning that tune

Let festivities commence

News, WEEKLY SPIN

Live and direct. As consumer demand rises for live entertainment experiences – just look at the crowds at Taylor Swift’s Eras tour – KKR has just announced the acquisition of Superstruct Entertainment. The global buyout firm has agreed to buy one of Europe’s leading live entertainment groups from Providence Equity Partners. It is another example of private equity plugging in to Media & Entertainment space, which has also seen increased investment in music rights and royalties. As part of the deal, Providence has the option to invest $250 million in to Superstruct, which under its stewardship has enjoyed strong organic growth; it now operates over 80 music festivals and live events in Europe and Australia including Boardmasters and Sónar. The new partnership is music to the ears of the Superstruct team. Could KKR’s deal will spur other PE groups to dance to the same beat and seek out further opportunities in the live entertainment space?

Inspired by the Financial Times

Billionaire Boys (Buyout) Club

News, WEEKLY SPIN

PE firms are tapping in to billionaire family wealth to help get buyout deals over the line, in a sign that family offices are becoming even more important co-investors. Bloomberg data reveals that wealthy families have contributed to nearly $20 billion of listed company takeovers. Family fortunes are proving to be quite the hit show, with blue chip PE groups not immune from the chilling effects of a slower fundraising environment. Family dollars have proved invaluable in getting a number of prominent acquisitions over the line this year, including Germany’s Veissmann family co-investing alongside KKR in the $3 billion purchase of renewable energy firm Encavis AG. These family friendly deals show that buyout fundraising has shifted slightly and become the ‘Billionaire Boys (Buyout) Club’.

Inspired by Yahoo Finance

Meme - Goldman’s $20bn+ fundraise…quite the work of art

Golden Opportunity

News, WEEKLY SPIN

That old expression ‘Streets paved with gold’ is well known to many but Goldman Sachs Asset Management has put a new spin on it. Why? Their latest direct lending fund – West Street Loan Partners V – has raised more than USD20 billion to support PE-backed global businesses. That’s a significant number and rather than suggesting private credit is overheating, this latest fundraise would seem to suggest the road ahead looks positively golden. Of course, it helps if you’re one of the early pioneers in this space which Goldman are, having launched their first direct lending strategy in 2008. No doubt the private credit team at GSAM will be ‘high fiving’ with this fifth iteration. Apparently, some USD4 billion has already been invested across 37 portfolio companies. Private credit is in sparkling form at the moment, as the USD1.6 trillion AUM market looks set to further grow. Maybe all that glitters really is gold!

Inspired by Private Equity News