This episode is sponsored by Francisco Partners and Platinum Equity

Dealmakers had high hopes for 2025, expecting the year to deliver a welcoming environment for M&A. Instead, uncertainty about tariffs and other issues stopped them in their tracks mid-year, and deal volume dropped. Exits have been especially challenging. But now as the year draws to a close, some clarity has returned to the market, and the number of completed transactions is rising once again. Many say the elusive rebound is just around the corner.

In this episode, PE Hub editor-in-chief Mary Kathleen Flynn speaks with Dipanjan 'DJ' Deb, co-founder and CEO of Francisco Partners, and Louis Samson, co-president of Platinum Equity, to find out how dealmakers are navigating the current conditions and what they're foreseeing for 2026.

This episode is sponsored by AlixPartners

The Disruption Matters special podcast miniseries is back for its fourth season, and this year, leading industry experts will discuss how private markets can still deliver growth, despite the headwinds of a revolution in tech, geopolitics and global markets.

All season long, we’ve argued that PE firms need to pursue growth even in times of uncertainty and volatility. But in our final episode of the year, we’re clarifying that not all growth is created equal. The right kind of growth is cost-effective and sustainable. We explore the threats to sustainable growth, the need to shape growth strategies around exit routes, how buy-and-build strategies can go awry, and how to pause a growth strategy without stalling the company’s progress.

Guests include Jason McDannold, co-lead of the PE practice at AlixPartners; Halvor Horten, partner at Bain Capital; Jennifer Bensimon, a managing director on the co-investment team of Partners Capital Group; Emanuela Cisini, a partner, co-head of operational improvement and head of Mideast and Asia at Investindustrial; and Burak Kiral, a partner and managing director with AlixPartners.

This episode is sponsored by AlixPartners

The Disruption Matters special podcast miniseries is back for its fourth season, and this year, leading industry experts discuss how private markets can still deliver growth, despite the headwinds of a revolution in tech, geopolitics and global markets.

In our fifth episode this season, we focus on best practices in planning for 2026 that allow portcos to hit the ground running in pursuit of growth. This means building the plan around customer pain points and preferences, with leaders freeing up resources both in terms of finances and human capital to win more business in the new year. In many ways, this is when to apply the principles around human capital, tech and innovation that we’ve been discussing all season long.

Guests include Jason McDannold, Americas co-leader of private equity at AlixPartners; Bob Brown, founding partner of Motive Partners; Hoyoung Pak, chief AI officer at AlixPartners; Gunnar Overstrom, a partner with Corsair Capital; and Saurabh Singh, a partner with AlixPartners.

This episode is sponsored by Cain International and Arrow Global and first appeared on The PERE Podcast

After several years defined by rising rates and pricing uncertainty, Europe’s property market may be at an inflection point. Jay Patel, managing director at Arrow Global, and Arvi Luoma, who heads Cain International’s European investment committee, share perspectives on how capital is rebalancing toward the continent in this special episode.

Patel notes that allocators from the US, Middle East and beyond are looking to Europe in ways they weren’t just a year ago, opening the door for both credit and equity strategies. Luoma, meanwhile, emphasizes that valuations appear to have bottomed and that green shoots are starting to show as financing conditions stabilize.

The two also highlight where opportunities are clearest: Germany’s distressed construction projects, Southern Europe’s structural tourism boom, student housing, and continued undersupply in residential and hospitality. Data centers and logistics remain attractive, while ESG regulation – once seen as a hurdle – is increasingly embedded in business plans, shaping how new assets are built and old ones are repositioned.

Taken together, their outlook is one of cautious optimism. Core capital is beginning to return, early movers are testing distressed opportunities, and Europe’s mix of stability, rule of law and long-term demand drivers are drawing greater global interest.

This episode is sponsored by AlixPartners

The Disruption Matters special podcast miniseries is back for its fourth season, and this year, leading industry experts will discuss how private markets can still deliver growth, despite the headwinds of a revolution in tech, geopolitics and global markets.

In our fourth episode this season, we focus on how best to drive innovation at portfolio companies, and how to ensure such efforts deliver on their promise. That means finding the Goldilocks level of structure that measures and substantiates the process, without smothering good ideas with bureaucracy.

Guests include Lara Nemerov, a partner with Alix Partners; Jason McDannold, Americas co-leader of private equity at AlixPartners; Hoyoung Pak, chief AI officer at AlixPartners; John Griffin, a partner with the Sterling Group; and Ben Hanessian, a principal of Baird Capital’s portfolio operations.

This episode is sponsored by Brookfield

In recent years, industrials and manufacturing companies have attracted relatively modest levels of interest from private equity managers.

However, a reappraisal may now be overdue. In the US and other developed markets, trade tariffs and the need for more resilient supply chains are driving a resurgence in homegrown industrials. And given the advent of new technologies – including artificial intelligence – the opportunities around reimagining processes and finding valuable efficiencies could be huge.

In this episode, Anuj Ranjan, CEO of Brookfield’s private equity group, and David Bonasia, a managing partner and head of operations for the firm’s Americas group, explain why industrials could offer excellent openings for PE investors. After all, companies in this space tend to avoid the drastic swings in valuations that have been problematic for investors in other sectors, they say. And with AI on hand to boost value creation efforts, there’s plenty of upside to capture.

This episode is sponsored by Lexington Partners, Proskauer and StepStone Group and first appeared on Secondaries Investor's Second Thoughts podcast

The secondaries market is benefitting from private markets' push into the private wealth space, with managers either launching secondaries-focused vehicles or secondaries making up a meaningful component of many evergreen funds.

Evergreen funds raised $16 billion in the first half of 2025 alone, 60 percent of which is dedicated to secondaries capital, according to estimates from Campbell Lutyens included in its H1 Secondary Market Overview Report.

In this episode, Secondaries Investor editor Madeleine Farman is joined by Lexington Partners' Taylor Robinson and StepStone Group's Brian Borton, both of whose organisations run evergreen vehicles deploying into the secondaries market. Proskauer’s head of its registered fund group John Mahon also joins the conversation.

In the wide-ranging conversation, Mahon, Borton and Robinson discuss appropriate ways to structure these vehicles, where to invest evergreen capital, regulatory updates, the long-term trajectory for these vehicles, and how they may impact the secondaries market.

At a time when distributions from private equity funds are slowing and GPs are holding on to assets for longer instead of selling them and returning cash to investors, many LPs may be wondering whether to hold off on making fresh commitments to PE funds.

While this might be tempting, it's just about the worst thing an investor can do, says Tim Yates, president and chief executive of Commonfund Outsourced CIO, which offers investment advice and manages capital for non-profit perpetual pools of assets, such as colleges, university endowments, foundations and other charitable organisations. The firm over the summer published a white paper, Mind the Gap: The Strategic Risk of Skipping a Vintage in Private Equity, which explores the downsides of making inconsistent commitments to PE funds.

"We continue to believe there's return generation potential from private markets and that those over time will outperform public markets," Yates says. "You need great managers to be able to do that, [but] it's really hard and can be expensive to time vintage your cycles."

In this episode, Yates discusses the three core principles that private markets investors should keep at the front of their mind when faced with a challenging investment environment; why the secondaries market isn't necessarily a panacea for vintage diversification; the risks of skipping a vintage; and whether manager selection is more important than consistent annual commitments.