Private Equity Spotlight

Hosted by PEI Group

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268

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Jun 2026

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About the show

PEI Group’s ‘Private Equity Spotlight’ podcast illuminates the latest trends in private equity across fundraising, portfolio management, deals, regulation and more. Get a front-row seat with our award-winning journalists from publications including Private Equity International, Private Funds CFO, Buyouts and PE Hub, as they interview the industry’s biggest personalities and dig deep into the dynamics affecting LPs, GPs and service providers. Available wherever you get your podcasts.

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June 16, 2026Episode 27139 min

Why financial services dealmaking demands deep sector expertise

This episode is sponsored by FTV Capital and J.C. Flowers & Co Financial services is one of the most active sectors in private equity dealmaking, but getting the highest returns requires deep sector expertise, especially in today's challenging exit environment. In this episode, PE Hub editor-in-chief Mary Kathleen Flynn speaks with Peter Yordán, a managing director of J.C. Flowers & Co, and Kyle Griswold, a partner at FTV Capital, to find out what makes financial services different from other sectors. We also hear their strategies for successful dealmaking, including how AI is changing the landscape.

June 3, 2026Episode 27032 min

A GP and LP unpack best (and worst) practices in co-investment

In the third episode of PEI Group’s Commitment Issues podcast miniseries, Joana Rocha Scaff of Neuberger Berman and Alexis Maskell of BC Partners unwrap the competitive world of private equity co-investments. Over the past few years, such deals have become an expected feature of a GP’s offering, with both investors and managers honing their approaches accordingly. As a very hands-on co-investor, Neuberger Berman looks to “re-underwrite” the asset alongside the GP, Scaff says. She highlights some of the issues that commonly crop up during the process, pointing to bugbears such as GPs going back on promises made or co-investments being pulled into continuation vehicles. For his part, Maskell outlines why he wants to see a variety of sophistication levels among LPs participating in co-investments, including what he likes – and prefers not – to see from clients, and how both sides can work together most effectively.

May 26, 2026Episode 26936 min

What’s next for value creation?

This episode is sponsored by Cinven and KPMG Private equity firms are accustomed to navigating change, but operating partner teams in particular have had to become more agile in recent years. As volatility becomes the new normal – from macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty to AI-related disruption – operating partners need to continuously reassess the value creation levers they are pulling to drive portfolio company growth, while also building resilience across their portfolios. This, in turn, is leading sponsors to reimagine their operating partner teams, in terms of structure and skill sets, as well as the way in which they engage with portfolio company management. In this episode of Private Equity Spotlight, Louise Fordham, head of special projects for private equity at PEI group, sits down with Sam Williams, managing director of strategy and investment insights at international private equity firm Cinven, and Paul Pan, private equity leader for the deal advisory and strategy practice at KPMG, to discuss the future outlook for value creation strategies.

May 12, 2026Episode 2689 min

Measuring alpha in private markets: Why asset-level data matters

As private markets mature and competition intensifies, investors are searching for ways to better measure risk, performance and true manager outperformance. Peer‑group comparisons and fund‑level IRRs may tell part of the story, but they are insufficient for knowing whether a GP is really achieving the alpha they might claim. In this episode, Frédéric Blanc‑Brude, CEO of Scientific Infra & Private Assets (SIPA), discusses why asset‑level data and benchmarking are becoming essential tools for investors. He explains how SIPA’s indices were developed to address long‑standing private markets data gaps, why the firm recently joined PEI Group, and how asset‑level benchmarks can help LPs determine whether GPs are genuinely generating alpha, or simply telling a compelling story. Learn more about Scientific Infra & Private Assets at sipametrics.com

May 5, 2026Episode 26731 min

PEI’s Data Dive: Reading the signals in secondaries sentiment

How is market sentiment shaping secondaries fundraising and deal activity? In this episode of PEI’s Data Dive podcast, PEI’s senior content producer, Evie Rusman, is joined by Secondaries Investor editor Madeleine Farman and PEI head of special projects for private equity Louise Fordham to discuss the findings from PEI Group title Secondaries Investor’s Global Market Survey 2026. The survey, conducted in partnership with Goodwin, polled LPs, GPs, secondaries buyers and the intermediary community about market trends, transaction processes, deployment issues, regulation and more. Download a data pack of the findings discussed in the podcast episode here. PEI’s new Data Dive miniseries digs into our proprietary data, surveys and rankings, as well as recent market data sets, to understand what investors and fund managers are thinking, where capital is moving and how private markets are evolving. Stay tuned for the next episode, which will provide insight into the 2026 edition of the PEI 300 – our annual ranking measuring the five-year fundraising totals of the world’s biggest private equity firms.

April 15, 2026Episode 26629 min

The new playbook for emerging managers

This episode is sponsored by Davis Polk and DC Advisory Senior dealmakers at established firms increasingly seem to be choosing to strike out on their own, much like those firms’ original founders once did during the surge in mid-market firms during the late 1990s and early 2000s. But in those years, institutional capital was flooding into a PE market that had proven its model repeatable, whereas the landscape for new firms today is markedly different. Not only do LPs want to see differentiated strategies with a compelling story and outsized returns, they want the young managers with whom they invest to have institutional-level operations and infrastructure. In this episode, Buyouts senior editor Graham Bippart sits down with Michael Hong, a partner in the Investment Management practice at Davis Polk, and Donato de Donato, co-lead of DC Advisory’s GP Strategic Advisory practice, to discuss the state of the emerging manager market. They point out that there is no shortage of challenges and complications lying in wait for would-be new managers, who often may be more restricted by their previous employers than they thought, make all-too-common mistakes in their pitch decks, and may even have notions about the most important first hires they should make. But in an ever-more-crowded market, those who can carve out a unique and compelling strategy are best poised to lure LP interest away from long-established managers. This episode was produced alongside Buyouts’ annual Emerging Managers Report, done in association with Gen II.

April 9, 2026Episode 26425 min

PEI's Data Dive: How LPs' investment priorities are shifting

Over the past year, LP appetite for private equity has shifted noticeably. Private Equity International’s latest LP Perspectives Study revealed that 38 percent of respondents plan to invest more in private equity in 2026, which is down from 45 percent in 2025. Meanwhile, 12 percent plan to invest less, up from 7 percent the prior year. What is driving this change? To unpack the data, PEI Group senior content producer Evie Rusman is joined by Hong Kong bureau chief Alex Lynn and senior research manager Evie Taylor to analyse the findings and discuss how these trends are shaping LP sentiment towards private equity. This is the first episode in PEI’s new miniseries Data Dive, where we'll dig into PEI's proprietary data, surveys and rankings, as well as recent market data sets, to understand what investors and fund managers are thinking, where capital is moving and how the asset class is evolving. Stay tuned for the next episode, which will provide insight into affiliate title Secondaries Investor’s inaugural global survey of the secondaries market.

March 30, 2026Episode 26530 min

Are PE's best days behind it? An LP and GP discuss

Have expectations for private equity changed? What’s the role of the asset class in the portfolio these days? These are the questions that Dale Burgess, executive managing director for equities at Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, and David Nowak, president of private equity firm Brookfield, tackle in the second episode of PEI Group's new Commitment Issues podcast miniseries. As the industry works through a backlog of unrealised assets, questions have arisen about performance, asset valuations and firms’ ability to acquire and sell companies in the time frame LPs have come to expect. For instance, average investment hold periods in private equity have now risen to around seven years, according to data from Bain & Company. Performance has to be even greater to achieve the same types of returns that private equity generated in past eras of cheaper debt. As Burgess and Nowak explore, this can present a significant challenge for some firms, while for others – particularly where operational improvement is an established part of the toolkit – the game hasn’t really changed.

February 20, 2026Episode 26334 min

How an LP and a GP are approaching the slower exit environment

In the first episode of PEI Group’s new Commitment Issues podcast, Yangge Seaman of the Children’s Health System of Texas spoke with Hg Capital co-CEO Steven Batchelor about the slow pace of exits and the rise of alternative forms of liquidity that some GPs are using to boost distributions. While exit activity and overall deal activity appear to be picking up this year, as a percentage of total net asset value, distributions are hovering around 11 percent. That’s a similar level of activity to that seen around the global financial crisis, and well below the 20 percent or more associated with more robust years. Seaman talked about what she is looking for when it comes to exit activity among the GPs in her portfolio, and Batchelor gave insight into how Hg approaches exit activity, including its use of a realisation committee to ensure the firm maintains a focus on selling companies. The two also discussed best practices around secondary sales as LPs look for liquidity. Seaman and Batchelor also talked about the evolving LP-GP relationship, and ways both sides can ensure strong partnership through cycles.

February 12, 2026Episode 26215 min

Private Funds CFO NY Forum: Sighs of relief

Private Funds CFO's 23rd annual New York Forum gathered together nearly 600 compliance, financial and operational experts in two days of discussions that covered everything from AI to new ways to think about carry. In this episode of Private Equity Spotlight, PEI Group editor Graeme Kerr chats with Private Funds CFO’s Graham Bippart, Rob Kotecki and Bill Myers to get their top takeaways from one of the world’s biggest events for CFOs. In this episode: Graham Bippart is senior editor of Buyouts and Private Funds CFO Rob Kotecki is deputy editor of Private Funds CFO Bill Myers is Washington correspondent for Private Funds CFO Graeme Kerr is an editor at PEI Group