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This paper compares how recent waves of private equity real estate investment have reshaped the rental housing markets in New York and Berlin. Through secondary analysis of separate primary research projects, we explore financialisation's impact on tenants, neighbourhoods, and urban space. Despite their contrasting market contexts and investor strategies, financialisation heightened existing inequalities in housing affordability and stability, and rearranged spaces of abandonment and gentrification in both cities. Conversely cities themselves also shaped the process of financialisation, with weakened rental protections providing an opening to transform affordable housing into a new global asset class. We also show how financialisation's adaptability in the face of changing market conditions entails ongoing, but shifting processes of uneven development. Comparative studies of financialisation can help highlight geographically disparate, but similar exposures to this global process, thus contributing to a critical urban politics of finance that crosses boundaries of space, sector and scale.

The growth of the private equity industry has spurred concerns about its impact on the economy. This analysis looks across nations and industries to assess the impact of private equity on industry performance. We find that industries where private equity funds invest grow more quickly in terms of total production and employment and appear less exposed to aggregate shocks. Our robustness tests provide some evidence that is consistent with our effects being driven by our preferred channel. This paper was accepted by Amit Seru, finance .

The growing influence of private equity (PE) in reproductive medicine makes it increasingly important to examine its impact from the perspectives of physicians, patients, and investors. As PE firms increasingly acquire fertility clinics and related healthcare services, they bring promises of operational efficiency, expanded access, and innovation. At the same time, these developments have come under growing scrutiny, raising critical concerns about the commercialization of care, equity of access, and the long-term impact on clinical outcomes. From the physician’s viewpoint, PE involvement presents both opportunities and challenges—shaping medical autonomy, clinical decision-making, and the ability to prioritize patient-centered care. The article critically assesses these dynamics, weighing the potential benefits of investment against concerns over profit-driven models, regulatory scrutiny, and the shifting role of healthcare professionals in an increasingly corporatized landscape.

In a leveraged buyout, a company is acquired by a specialized investment firm using a relatively small portion of equity and a relatively large portion of outside debt financing. The leveraged buyout investment firms today refer to themselves (and are generally referred to) as private equity firms. We describe and present time series evidence on the private equity industry, considering both firms and transactions. We discuss the existing empirical evidence on the economics of the firms and transactions. We consider similarities and differences between the recent private equity wave and the wave of the 1980s. Finally, we speculate on what the evidence implies for the future of private equity.

Effective risk management is essential for private equity (PE) funds to navigate economic, market, and operational challenges while maximizing investor returns. This study aims to evaluate the risk management practices employed by private equity funds in South Africa, focusing on the tools used for pre-investment risk assessment and the strategies implemented throughout the investment process. A quantitative approach was adopted, using a semi-structured questionnaire administered to 31 private equity fund managers in South Africa’s Gauteng province. The Mann-Whitney U test, a non- parametric statistical method, was applied to assess the independence of smaller and larger fund groups, given their distinct nature and the non-normal distribution of the dependent variable. The findings indicate that traditional pre-screening risk assessment methods are commonly used by South African private equity funds. Additionally, larger funds tend to co-invest with trusted partners as a key strategy for mitigating risk. The results also reveal that these larger funds more frequently utilize the enterprise value/earnings before interest and tax (EV/EBIT) ratio in their evaluation process. This study supports the Basel II recommendation, which suggests that adopting an audit and risk planning framework can help private equity firms identify the most critical risks and concentrate their risk management efforts accordingly. The survey’s overall results show that cash flow-volatility-based models and stress testing are the most widely utilized tools among the funds studied. This research contributes to the ongoing discourse on risk management in private equity, particularly in the context of South Africa’s emerging economy, offering new insights into a relatively underexplored area.

Private equity (PE) funds have generated returns that are about the same as those of public equity indexes since at least 2006. Large public pension funds received a net multiple of money (MoM) that sits within a narrow 1.51 to 1.54 range. The Big Four PE firms also delivered estimated net MoMs within a narrow 1.54 to 1.67 range. Three large data sets show average net MoMs across all PE funds at 1.55, 1.57, and 1.63. These net MoMs imply an 11% per annum return, which matches relevant public equity indexes, a result confirmed by public market equivalent (PME) calculations. Yet, the estimated total performance fee (carry) collected by these PE funds is estimated to be $230 billion, and most of it goes to a relatively small number of individuals. If all vintage years are included to 2015, the carry collected is $370 billion, with a performance similar to that of small-cap indexes but higher than that of large-cap stock indexes. The number of PE multibillionaires rose from three in 2005 to 22 in 2020. Rebuttals from the Big Four and the main industry lobby body are provided and discussed. TOPICS: Private equity, performance measurement, statistical methods, quantitative methods, real assets/alternative investments/private equity Key Findings • Private equity funds have produced returns about the same as those of public equity indexes since at least 2006. • Yet, the estimated total performance fees collected by these PE funds are estimated at $230 billion, and most of that goes to a relatively small number of individuals. • These results clash with commonly and strongly held beliefs.

The untold history of an American catastrophe The ultrawealthy largely own and guide the newspaper system in the United States. Through entities like hedge funds and private equity firms, this investor class continues to dismantle the one institution meant to give voice to average citizens in a democracy. Margot Susca reveals the little-known history of how private investment took over the newspaper industry. Drawing on a political economy of media, Susca's analysis uses in-depth interviews and documentary evidence to examine issues surrounding ownership and power. Susca also traces the scorched-earth policies of layoffs, debt, cash-outs, and wholesale newspaper closings left behind by private investors and the effects of the devastation on the future of news and information. Throughout, Susca reveals an industry rocked less by external forces like lost ad revenue and more by ownership and management obsessed with profit and beholden to private fund interests that feel no responsibility toward journalism or the public it is meant to serve.

How do host country institutions influence the value of a firm's local resources? Using a novel dataset on the performance of 47 private equity (PE) firms in 49 emerging economies, we show evidence that the answer depends on the type of institution. Focusing on conditions at the time of initial investment, we find that PE firms with local origins and foreign PE firms with local experience performed better when contract enforcement institutions were weak than when they were strong. Financial development, in contrast, may have undermined the value of PE firm local origins. These results help reconcile contrasting findings on how host country institutions influence performance and lead us to contend that unbundling institutions is necessary for continued development of the institutions-based view.

Orientation The purpose was to determine the critical criteria that present a challenge to private equity investment professionals when considering an investment in business ventures in South Africa. A literature review was conducted to develop qualitatively a 51-component questionnaire, which was quantitatively tested by a convenience sample of 44 registered private equity investment professionals in South Africa.