Knowledge Base
PE firms, fund structures, deal analysis, and the fundamentals of institutional private equity investing.
47 articles in this category — page 2 of 4
The private equity fund structure is a limited partnership where investors (LPs) commit capital and fund managers (GPs) deploy it, taking 1.5–2% annually in management fees plus 20% of profits above a negotiated hurdle rate. That's the skeleton. What matters for anyone writing checks at the LP level
Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe has managed over $33 billion in assets across more than four decades of concentrated bets on healthcare and technology. For high-net-worth investors evaluating private equity allocations, WCAS represents a specific type of opportunity: a sector-specialist buyout firm
Brookfield private equity is one of the largest alternative asset platforms on earth, with Brookfield Asset Management reporting approximately $925 billion in assets under management as of year-end 2023. But the firm's structure creates a real access problem for individual investors: the flagship fu
Ares Management is not a pure-play buyout firm. That single fact shapes everything about how you should evaluate it as an LP. As of late 2024, Ares reported approximately $447 billion in AUM across credit, real assets, and private equity, with credit strategies representing the majority of that figu
Distressed private equity involves acquiring stakes in financially troubled companies or their debt at significant discounts, then restructuring operations, capital structures, or both to generate returns at exit. The core distinction from traditional PE is the entry point: you are buying broken, no
The best private equity newsletters are not industry gossip sheets. For a FATFIRE-level investor sitting at the threshold of direct fund access, $5M–$10M minimum commitments are real numbers, not aspirational ones. The right newsletter stack gives you the market intelligence to decide which vintage
Private investment in public equity (PIPE) is a mechanism where accredited investors purchase shares of a publicly traded company through a negotiated private transaction, typically at a discount of 10% to 20% below the prevailing market price. The company gets capital faster than a traditional offe
The top 100 private equity firms by AUM collectively control trillions in capital, but the ranking matters less than what it reveals about access, fees, and realistic return expectations for investors at the $5M+ level. Blackstone alone reported over $1 trillion in AUM in its Q4 2023 earnings releas
Berkshire Hathaway is not a private equity firm. Calling it one is the most common misunderstanding in conversations about Berkshire private equity. It is a permanent capital holding company that acquires businesses outright and holds them indefinitely, with no fund structure, no management fees, no
Singapore-based private equity and venture capital managers held SGD 5 trillion in assets under management as of 2023, according to the Monetary Authority of Singapore. For high-net-worth investors evaluating Asian PE allocations, the city-state offers something genuinely rare: zero capital gains ta
The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec manages roughly CAD $434 billion in net assets and runs one of the most studied private equity programs among global institutional investors. For anyone allocating serious capital to private equity, CDPQ's model offers a structural blueprint that most retai
Catch-up in private equity is the mechanism that determines when and how a general partner starts collecting carried interest after limited partners have received their preferred return. Get this clause wrong in your fund evaluation, and you can misread GP incentives, misjudge net return projections