Committed Capital

2024 marks the 40th anniversary of Dechert’s global private equity practice. In this special episode, Blackstone’s Christopher James, KKR’s John Park, and AB Private Credit Investors’ Jay Ramakrishnan join Ken Young, co-chair of Dechert's corporate and securities practice and co-head of the global private equity group, to reflect on the evolution of the PE industry, from its humble beginnings to its current scale and complexity. Among other topics, they discuss the diversification of investment strategies from pure buyout shops to massive alternative asset managers, the evolution and the role of private credit in the private equity ecosystem, and the increasing ability for retail investors to access private markets strategies.

Key Takeaways

• Over the past 40 years, private equity has demonstrated resilience through various economic cycles, continually evolving to meet new challenges.
• The private equity industry has grown tremendously in both scale and diversification of strategies.
• Not just private equity, private credit has also emerged as a key asset class, benefiting from the rise in private equity while also supporting that growth.
• Diversification has included the investor classes too, where outreach to retail investor is the next phase in the diversification of the private capital business.
• What do the next 40 years hold for PE? According to our guests, quite a lot.