About the report
With Covid-19 turning the global economy into recession and causing turmoil in public financial markets, investors are reviewing their investment strategies and deciding when the best time is to invest. The white paper presents a case for private equity in the given circumstances.
Key highlights
- Private equity’s best returns tend to follow recessionary periods
Historic data show that private equity outperforms public markets throughout the business cycle, and IRR picks up following recessions, as most recently observed following the dotcom bubble and the global financial crisis.
- More flexible deployment of capital
Flexible access to capital in a downturn can be essential to prevent bankruptcies. While defaults of individual businesses do go up during recessions, studies show that the risk of ‘catastrophic loss’ is less than half for buyout companies compared to public companies.
- Positive impact of active management
One of the key – and sometimes underestimated – drivers of value by buyout funds is their active approach to governance. Global top tier fund managers have several ways to actively support the management of their portfolio businesses.