Every quarter we gather vice presidents in PE to discuss current industry topics and to offer these peers the chance to gather, share information, and decompress with one another. In our most recent event, we discussed many topics and have listed our top takeaways below.
These forums are invite-only and follow Chatham House Rules, so listed below are high-level takeaways only. Are you in private equity and interested in joining fellow PE VPs during our next PE VP Forum? Please contact us at events@bluwave.net.
Increased Deal Competition
- Deal competition is at an all-time high, so firms are getting creative in how to best address this. Common themes across the ideas that were shared were:
- Determine the best approach for your firm that allows you to quickly identify the best possible deals where you have unique insights.
- Seek specialization from an investment strategy perspective.
- Utilize help in the form of third-party advisors that have industry expertise and can assist in assessing the deal.
Deal Surge
- There is currently an overabundance of deals in the market which means sellers are considering values like speed and partnership in addition to price. Look for opportunities to emphasize these values in order to differentiate yourself when you can’t differentiate on price.
Labor Dynamics
- Firms are continually facing difficulties in attracting and retaining talent due to the pressurized market. Internally, one solution has been to offer associates more than one track for their advancement, and externally, firms are developing innovative solutions for longer than average portco exec hiring processes including beginning recruiting processes before the deal even closes.
We thoroughly enjoyed getting to gather with PE VPs to discuss these current industry hot topics. We’s be happy to connect you to the PE-grade, exact-fit, third-party resources to assist you in this tight market, just contact us here.
Learn more about how we can specifically help Deal Quarterbacks and access a toolkit that can help you do your job more efficiently here.
