The alternatives industry has navigated a rapidly shifting landscape and macro headwinds on all fronts over the last five years. Now we’re more than halfway through the decade, it’s time to take stock of the challenges and opportunities facing private markets managers and assess the route forward to 2030. From leveraging AI and other advances in technology to tapping into the retail and private wealth market, Private Markets 2030 explores how the industry can position itself for growth.
Private Markets 2030 will take a deep dive into six key trends that private markets managers will need to consider when looking to attract capital and deliver portfolio performance over the next five years: Deglobalisation; Democratisation & Transparency; Industry Consolidation; Sustainability; Public Markets; and Artificial Intelligence.
PEI Group editorial teams from Private Equity International, Infrastructure Investor, Private Debt Investor, PERE, PE Hub, Buyouts, Secondaries Investor and New Private Markets explore the roadmap for alternative asset classes, including private equity, infrastructure, private credit and real estate.
What to watch
Starting in mid-October, each week for six weeks, we’ll tackle a new theme and suggest what developments managers should monitor closely over the next five years. Along the way, we’ll share insights from thought leaders and provide data analysis.
For Secondaries Investor readers, Private Markets 2030 addresses how the global macro outlook and key developments across private markets will impact LP and GP behaviour, unlocking areas where these players may search for liquidity in future.
In Private Markets 2030…
Coming soon…
Public markets
Thanks to the evolution of a robust private market ecosystem that includes private credit, secondaries and unprecedented amounts of capital, companies are growing bigger and staying private for longer than ever before. Nevertheless, the dream to go public is still very much alive.
Restoring the balance between public and private markets
Private markets are on the up, but our economies need fully functioning and vibrant public markets as well.
Modelling public-private exposure
Do customisable models incorporating both public and private markets exposure represent the next step in the democratisation of alternatives?
The rise and rise of take-privates
Short-term and increasingly passive public markets aren’t always the right fit for major transformations, particularly those being driven by trends such as decarbonisation and AI.
Sustainability
After an era of exuberance, expansion and ‘rockstar’ roles, sustainability in private markets is being more closely tethered to value creation. Today, there is a sense among those in the sustainability function that – while the “backlash” has been an uncomfortable process – a reckoning was needed.
Alternatives managers change tack on ESG comms
As anti-ESG rhetoric in the US intensifies, private markets players appear to be dialling down their messaging, but not their actions.
Private capital’s role in the fight against climate change
As the all-important 2030 deadline to limit global warming looms, are private markets on track to help meet the world’s critical climate needs?
Rising stars on the future of sustainability in private markets
Up-and-coming talent from across PEI Group’s under-40 lists share the sustainability and impact trends that are gaining momentum in alternatives.
Industry consolidation
For more than three decades, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments et al have been the lifeblood of private markets. Now, they face the prospect of sharing access with two other growing groups of investors: wealthy individuals and insurance providers. How are managers handling the shifts? Consolidation via acquisition by larger, wider-reaching peers, is one obvious route. A halfway step is at least forming partnerships with them.
Creating the one-stop-shops of the future
Private markets M&A continues to gather pace as asset management mega-platforms attempt to meet all their investors’ needs.
How will emerging managers fare in a consolidating market?
Competition for capital is fierce, but new firm formation is poised to continue nonetheless.
Private markets’ burgeoning capital concentration challenge
By appealing to retail and large institutional investors, mega-managers may end up with the lion’s share of capital, with implications for themselves and their investors, writes Cambridge Associates’ Andrea Auerbach.
Democratisation & Transparency
Opening up alternative assets to non-institutional investors, from HNWIs to 401(k) account holders, represents up to $80 trillion. It’s an alluring pot of capital for an industry with flatlining annual fundraising figures in some asset classes. And yet, multiple headwinds exist, making the journey towards increasing democratisation far from straightforward.
Do private markets require a rebrand?
With the retailisation of private markets set to transform the industry, building brand awareness with individual investors has become a priority for managers.
How tech could drive the next wave of democratisation
Further technology advances are required to truly unlock the potential of the private wealth market.
Market sentiment towards retail opportunities heats up
Private markets’ enthusiasm for the retail space is no fleeting trend, according to data highlights from the industry.
Davis Polk: Retail push can complement traditional funds
There is now proof of concept that institutional and retail products can successfully be managed side by side, say Davis Polk’s Andrew Ahern, Oran Ebel, Christopher Healey and Leor Landa.
Deglobalisation
With globalisation in retreat, the world economy is one marked by tighter borders, tariffs and counter-tariffs, inflationary pressures and greater government intervention – all of which seem likely to remain on an upward trajectory. The implications for private investment are complex. In areas like manufacturing, for example, the push is towards reshoring of portfolio company operations. In risk management, on the other hand, many investors see diversifying their global exposure as key.
Is deglobalisation the new globalisation?
A new world order is expected to reshape the private markets opportunity set over the next five years.
Navigating national security concerns
Will the Trump administration’s America First Investment Policy fundamentally change global capital flows?
How will tariff uncertainty impact LP appetite for alternatives?
In response to the rise of US trade tariffs, LPs are turning towards private credit and infrastructure – and eyeing opportunities in Europe.