Private Equity is resilient and nimble and has demonstrated an ability to withstand shocks. Private equity investors have come out of the recession with a renewed focus on organic revenue growth, applying a more entrepreneurial mindset to working with their portfolio companies.

Private equity firms are operating today in an increasingly uncertain environment. After the global financial crisis, the most important lesson learned was: expect the unexpected.

The PE investment model is built on the premise that companies can improve their performance and better position themselves for long-term success by aligning the interests of owners and managers and removing the short-term pressures of public ownership.

PE Funds for example do very well in low growth industries where a focus on operations and cost, managerial and financial restructuring can have a much bigger impact than in high growth industries as can be seen in the following A.T. Kearney Private Equity study.

Diversify by geography

PE is also leveraging its talent and active management expertise to increase its geographic reach into new markets and capture some of the world's most compelling growth stories.

Diversify the platform

Firms are increasingly leveraging their strong brands in PE by expanding into advisory and capital markets services and becoming multi-asset managers. The result is that large firms in particular derive less from the traditional leveraged buyout (LBO) model in terms of returns and capital-raising.

In 2003, buyout assets accounted for 46% of all private equity capital. By 2012, this had dropped to 38%, and the trend is even more pronounced at the largest firms.

PE Regulatory Developments

By looking at the U.S. and Global regulatory developments in PE and how PE is helping to create value more generally we can more clearly see what the future might hold in terms of the global regulatory private equity landscape.