The past few years have been anything but ordinary for the private equity industry, and the pandemic itself has done little to slow its momentum. The unprecedented amount of stimulus produced a historic surge in dealmaking and exits. 2021 was a record-breaking year on several fronts. Preqin reports total private equity deal value in 2021 reached $804bn on an annualized basis – 70% more than the figure for pre-pandemic 2019, whereas total exit value reached $767bn on an annualized basis – a 92% increase over 2019. Average deal size pierced through the $1 billion mark in 2021 for the first time ever. It was also second-best fund-raising year in the industry’s history, capping a five-year run that has netted $1.8 trillion in new buyout capital. Funds boosted distributions to LPs and continued to deliver returns outpacing any other asset class (median annualized net IRR was 18.8% in the five years to March 2021). Overall, 2021 crowned another decade of outstanding performance in private equity.

While global expansion continued to drive impressive returns for PE funds, challenges linked to supply-chain disruptions and most notably inflation and rising interest rates throughout 2022 suggest such results may be harder to come by. How will the tightening of credit and constricting economy impact performance at fund and portfolio levels? What management muscles and value-creation capabilities are required to achieve differentiation in an increasingly competitive market? What strategies are employed by leading PE groups to achieve a winning edge? privCAP e-forum has convened some of the industry’s best to address these and many other critical issues top of mind for private equity professionals.