(Bloomberg) — A return to record-breaking dealmaking in the private equity industry isn’t far away, according to the chairman of $142 billion Swiss investment house Partners Group Holding AG.
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“There’s a good chance we’ll see record levels of transactions again in a few quarters time, and actually exceeding that,” Steffen Meister said in an interview on Bloomberg TV on Tuesday.
Meister was speaking from the IPEM private markets conference in Paris, an event being held at a time of depressed deal activity, with leveraged buyouts constrained by tight financing markets.
The Partners Group chairman said the global economy is in the foothills of its biggest-ever recalibration, driven by rising interest rates and geopolitical dynamics. New technologies, including artificial intelligence, will also transform the way people work across sectors in the years ahead and provide new risks and rewards to investors, according to Meister.
“Where are the opportunities? You have to look through the different value chains of ecosystems,” he said.
Meister said the private equity industry, which is in the midst of a challenging fundraising environment, has the potential to unlock trillions of dollars of untapped assets by lowering the barriers of entry for retail investors.
“That requires new products that look a little bit more like mutual funds,” he said.
Read More: A PE Firm Ticks Along Like a Swiss Watch—Bloomberg Deals
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