Private Equity Spotlight

This episode is sponsored by Bravo Capital and first appeared on The PERE Podcast The lending landscape is shifting, and private credit is taking center stage. In this episode, Bravo Capital founder and CEO Aaron Krawitz discusses how his firm is navigating a market defined by bank pullbacks, rising regulation and persistent demand for rental housing. Krawitz outlines where opportunities are emerging: ground-up multifamily construction, healthcare and skilled nursing facilities, and HUD-backed permanent financing. As traditional lenders retrench, these areas are seeing renewed activity from private lenders that can move quickly and tailor structures to complex projects. He also reflects on how Bravo has adapted since launching at the height of the pandemic, emphasizing the importance of a disciplined approach and alignment with investors through shifting market conditions. That ethos, he says, has supported a focus on quality borrowers, measured construction exposure and long-term partnerships over loan volume metrics. Across development financing, bridge loans and HUD takeouts, Bravo sees a broader trend in real estate credit: private lenders are leading the way with financings, even amid market uncertainty.

This episode is sponsored by AlixPartners The Disruption Matters special podcast miniseries is back for its fourth season, and this year, leading industry experts will discuss how private markets can still deliver growth, despite the headwinds of a revolution in tech, geopolitics and global markets. All season long, we’ve argued that PE firms need to pursue growth even in times of uncertainty and volatility. But in our final episode of the year, we’re clarifying that not all growth is created equal. The right kind of growth is cost-effective and sustainable. We explore the threats to sustainable growth, the need to shape growth strategies around exit routes, how buy-and-build strategies can go awry, and how to pause a growth strategy without stalling the company’s progress. Guests include Jason McDannold, co-lead of the PE practice at AlixPartners; Halvor Horten, partner at Bain Capital; Jennifer Fox Bensimon, a managing director on the co-investment team of Partners Capital Investment Group; Emanuela Cisini, a partner and head of Middle East & Asia at Investindustrial; and Burak Kiral, a partner and managing director with AlixPartners.

This episode is sponsored by Cain International and Arrow Global and first appeared on The PERE Podcast After several years defined by rising rates and pricing uncertainty, Europe’s property market may be at an inflection point. Jay Patel, managing director at Arrow Global, and Arvi Luoma, who heads Cain International’s European investment committee, share perspectives on how capital is rebalancing toward the continent in this special episode. Patel notes that allocators from the US, Middle East and beyond are looking to Europe in ways they weren’t just a year ago, opening the door for both credit and equity strategies. Luoma, meanwhile, emphasizes that valuations appear to have bottomed and that green shoots are starting to show as financing conditions stabilize. The two also highlight where opportunities are clearest: Germany’s distressed construction projects, Southern Europe’s structural tourism boom, student housing, and continued undersupply in residential and hospitality. Data centers and logistics remain attractive, while ESG regulation – once seen as a hurdle – is increasingly embedded in business plans, shaping how new assets are built and old ones are repositioned. Taken together, their outlook is one of cautious optimism. Core capital is beginning to return, early movers are testing distressed opportunities, and Europe’s mix of stability, rule of law and long-term demand drivers are drawing greater global interest.

This episode is sponsored by Brookfield In recent years, industrials and manufacturing companies have attracted relatively modest levels of interest from private equity managers. However, a reappraisal may now be overdue. In the US and other developed markets, trade tariffs and the need for more resilient supply chains are driving a resurgence in homegrown industrials. And given the advent of new technologies – including artificial intelligence – the opportunities around reimagining processes and finding valuable efficiencies could be huge. In this episode, Anuj Ranjan, CEO of Brookfield’s private equity group, and David Bonasia, a managing partner and head of operations for the firm’s Americas group, explain why industrials could offer excellent openings for PE investors. After all, companies in this space tend to avoid the drastic swings in valuations that have been problematic for investors in other sectors, they say. And with AI on hand to boost value creation efforts, there’s plenty of upside to capture.

At a time when distributions from private equity funds are slowing and GPs are holding on to assets for longer instead of selling them and returning cash to investors, many LPs may be wondering whether to hold off on making fresh commitments to PE funds. While this might be tempting, it's just about the worst thing an investor can do, says Tim Yates, president and chief executive of Commonfund Outsourced CIO, which offers investment advice and manages capital for non-profit perpetual pools of assets, such as colleges, university endowments, foundations and other charitable organisations. The firm over the summer published a white paper, Mind the Gap: The Strategic Risk of Skipping a Vintage in Private Equity, which explores the downsides of making inconsistent commitments to PE funds. "We continue to believe there's return generation potential from private markets and that those over time will outperform public markets," Yates says. "You need great managers to be able to do that, [but] it's really hard and can be expensive to time vintage your cycles." In this episode, Yates discusses the three core principles that private markets investors should keep at the front of their mind when faced with a challenging investment environment; why the secondaries market isn't necessarily a panacea for vintage diversification; the risks of skipping a vintage; and whether manager selection is more important than consistent annual commitments.

No trend has taken the private equity industry by storm quite like that of semi-liquid and evergreen funds. Data from consultancy Bfinance shows that at least $30 billion has been raised via private equity semi-liquid funds since 2020 – a figure that represents just 10 percent of the overall semi-liquids universe. In this episode, Ajay Pathak, a partner and co-chair of Goodwin’s UK business, joins PEI senior editor Adam Le to discuss how management fees and carried interest are calculated; whether the typical 2-and-20 model prevalent in traditional drawdown funds make sense to apply to semi-liquid funds; whether charging carried interest on net asset value on both a realised and unrealised basis really make sense; and more.

Tariff turmoil, trade wars and real conflict in the Middle East – these are just some of the challenges private equity participants have had to navigate so far this year. Speaking to senior editor Adam Le, David Gross, co-managing partner at Bain Capital, said volatility and uncertainty is nothing new for investors. “I’d be the first to agree that it’s a very disorienting time period,” Gross said. He points out, however, that volatility and uncertainty have characterised almost the past two decades. “Since the global financial crisis, we’ve seen heightened volatility in the investing world. If you just look at the VIX [volatility index] and other metrics, and the market windows that are open in the public market, you’ve seen heightened volatility." Gross, who has been with the firm for 25 years and is also managing partner of Asia, discusses what effective investors need in uncertain environments, the attraction of defence investing in Europe, the exit environment, and why the firm has no current plans to launch a secondaries investment business.