NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - July 12, 2016) - Around the world, the ground is shifting beneath the feet of private equity (PE) investors as the forces that once drove business expansion and powered investment returns from the earliest days of the PE industry are winding down. Baby Boomers' consumption patterns are evolving as that generation eases into retirement. The breakthroughs in computing and telecommunications that drove the information technology revolution are giving way to robotics, genomics and artificial intelligence that will usher in the next wave of commercial development. How are private equity (PE) firms getting -- and staying -- ahead as these and other changes push the global economy toward a major inflection point?
Bain & Company, the leading advisor to PE investors, in its seventh annual bellwether Global Private Equity Report, identifies one critical way that PE firms can gain a distinctive advantage in today's challenging environment: taking a thematic approach to investing.
"In our work with PE investors around the world, we've seen the payoff from thematic investing," said Hugh MacArthur, who leads Bain's Global Private Equity Practice. "This approach enables firms to get an early jump on emerging macro forces, organize around them and incorporate a deep understanding of their potential impacts on the deals they choose to make, or walk away from."
MacArthur says the practical benefits that accrue to thematically oriented PE firms are considerable and include: a more confident understanding of the types of opportunities they want to pursue and a network of contacts that will help them find suitable deals; streamlined due diligence, which helps firms quickly size up whether potential deals satisfy the macro criteria they have prioritized and dismiss the ones that fall short; greater confidence in determining when to bid aggressively and when to hold back; and the ability to align their organizations around a common macro thesis and develop areas of expertise that cut across traditional geographic and business sector boundaries.
Bain found that all successful thematic investors follow two sequential steps for converting themes into actionable investment criteria:
- Identify and analyze - Thematic investors cast a wide net to pick up the early thread of an emerging macro force that might move the economy, looking for bold, counterintuitive opportunities
- Drill down and codify - They also conduct deeper analysis to understand how the fund's specific capabilities can make the themes actionable, which enables GPs to sort out what truly suits them versus what is merely interesting
"We're just seeing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to thematic investing, but the effects are impressive," said MacArthur. "PE firms focused on macro trends have much more clarity and confidence in building their portfolios, which will help drive superior performance in the years to come."
To arrange an interview with Mr. MacArthur, contact: Dan Pinkney at dan.pinkney@bain.com or +1 646 562 8102
About Bain's Private Equity Business
Bain & Company is the leading consulting partner to the private equity (PE) industry and its stakeholders. Private equity consulting at Bain has grown fivefold over the past 15 years and now represents about one-quarter of the firm's global business. Bain maintains a global network of more than 1,000 experienced professionals serving PE clients. The firm's practice is more than triple the size of the next-largest consulting firm serving PE firms.
Bain's work with PE firms spans fund types -- buyout, infrastructure, real estate and debt, as well as hedge funds -- and many of the most prominent institutional investors, such as sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, endowments and family investment offices. Bain supports its clients across a broad range of objectives that include deal generation, due diligence, immediate post-acquisition, ongoing value addition, exit, firm strategy and operations, and institutional investor strategy.
About Bain & Company
Bain & Company is the management consulting firm that the world's business leaders come to when they want results. Bain advises clients on strategy, operations, technology, organization, private equity and mergers and acquisition, developing practical insights that clients act on and transferring skills that make change stick. The firm aligns its incentives with clients by linking its fees to their results. Bain clients have outperformed the stock market 4 to 1. Founded in 1973, Bain has 53 offices in 34 countries, and its deep expertise and client roster cross every industry and economic sector. For more information visit: www.bain.com. Follow us on Twitter @BainAlerts.
Contact Information:
Media Contact:
Dan Pinkney
Bain & Company
Tel: +1 646 562 8102
dan.pinkney@bain.com