What if you were to found a private equity firm that entirely outsourced the investment function and focused solely on operations? Impossible dream or the future direction of the market?The Drawdown speaks to Stephen Branagan of Pantheon Ventures, who argues that it might not be such a crazy concept as it first appears. With LP and regulatory demands ever increasing and tech stacks increasingly complex, a firm specialising in ops could have an advantage when marketing to investors. Stephen and The Drawdown team discuss the pros and cons of an operations-first approach and whether this dream could ever become reality.

The Drawdown is joined by a panel of tokenisation experts to discuss how the technology can be used in private markets. Jack Chong is an entrepreneur in residence at White Star Capital, based in New York. Prior to that, he spent time developing a bond issuance asset tokenisation company for sustainable finance. His current business endeavour aims to remove barriers for asset managers looking to adopt tokenisation. Steven Lightstone is a regulatory partner in the investment management team at Morgan Lewis, based in the firm’s London office. He has particular experience advising the alternative asset industry on fintech and cryptoasset regulation. Finally, Myles Milston joins us from Globacap, the fintech company he co-founded in 2017. Based in the UK, the firm focuses on digitalising private market workflows. Milston’s background is in banking and technology, and he is keen to bridge the gap between both industries. Together, we discuss what tokenisation is and how it can be used in the field of private markets. We tackle the regulatory and operational barriers, and share some tips on how to overcome them.

Real Deals looks at the broader implications of the converging private capital market.

In a recent podcast, Real Deals spoke to Rutland Partners investment director Jason Birt and Woodall Nicholson CTO John Randerson on creating value through innovation and green energy initiatives at the portfolio company.

Real Deals’ roundtable explored private debt's emergent role in a post-pandemic market. Here are some of the key themes that were discussed. Market growth Debt funds vs banks ESG

Real Deals is joined by Eve Ellis, partner at Ropes and Gray, and Dani Williams, senior principal consultant and ESG advisory team member at ACA Group, to discuss the challenges GPs and LPs are facing with the new SFDR regulation, how investors have reacted and what to expect from Level 2 in 2022.

Kirkland & Ellis Nordic Capital Aztec Group FSN Capital Campbell Lutyens A group of experts discussing the impact of Covid-19 on current fundraising, remote fund launches, fund structuring and set up, investor onboarding in the current climate and the difference between pre and post-pandemic fundraising.

In a recent roundtable hosted by Real Deals, a group of due diligence professionals and fund managers discussed the evolution of DD in the last year and how DD assessments have a vital role to play in value creation. Armstrong CG Consultancy Confidas People JTC Group onefourzero Group RPS Group WA Communications

Do GPs need to specialise to stand out or can firms can still succeed in the current market as generalist investors?

Mike Dickey, head of product development MUFG Investor Services and Hamish Mair, managing director and head of the private equity team, BMO Global Asset Management (EMEA), examine the impact of initiatives such as the ILPA template on reporting, the ways in which information is disseminated, new technologies and what total standardisation would mean for LPs.

Real Deals speaks to Matthew Finnie, Chief Technology Officer of Drax on the increasing appetite for portfolio company management diligence

Mike Dickey, head of product development MUFG Investor Services and Hamish Mair, managing director and head of the private equity team, BMO Global Asset Management (EMEA), discuss the challenges of moving away from Excel and PDFs; the proliferation of side-letters and their impact on reporting and transparency, and ways in which technological solutions are helping.

Private equity dealmakers have adjusted to lockdown restrictions and continued to close transactions at pace. Lenders have responded in kind and demonstrated an ongoing willingness to structure and execute financing to meet the requirements of their clients. Annual ABL Roundtable hosted by Real Deals, lenders, and advisers discuss how the ABL offer has fared through the pandemic period and what ABL lenders can bring to the table to deliver for private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies.

Secondaries are here to stay in 2021. While the exit market remains comparatively slow to exit levels pre-Covid, it is expected that secondaries will remain a preferred option for GPs and LPs alike. The secondary market bounced back fairly quickly after the first lockdown last year, with GP-led situations being particularly popular. This year, GP-leds, in particular, are expected to be an option of choice again, both for LPs who want liquidity and their GP counterparts who don’t yet want to sell the portfolio companies at a suboptimal time in the market for valuations. Secondaries funds have had to adapt and in the past 12 months, and we have continued to see this segment of the market remains resilient and continuously evolving. In this roundtable, we will discuss: the response of the secondaries market to the pandemic, the growth in GP-led solutions, the evolution of the market, and predictions on the next big thing for secondaries.

In a recent Real Deals roundtable, a panel of experts discussed how Brexit has and will affect the private equity industry, with a focus on deals, portfolio company management, investor queries and more. See more at realdeals.eu.com

Real Deals speaks to IPEM CEO Antoine Colson and O2B Films founder Olivier de Bannes on IPEM's upcoming documentary that focuses on the Covid-19 pandemic and our industry’s response to it.

A panel of senior ABL lenders, advisers, and GPs discuss how ABL providers are positioning their offerings in post-Covid M&A processes and how ABLs and their clients have steered through an uncertain and volatile market.

Support for fast-growth companies throughout the cycle Tackling the finance gap with companies from breakeven to £1m EBITDA Getting to grips with ARR-style funding Cross-origination for PE houses looking for new deals

In today’s programme we are going to have an in-depth discussion on the trend of sector specialisation. Sector specialism has become a decisive differentiator for managers when executing deals and LPs appear to be pivoting towards sector specialists in greater numbers. But why is this? Do sector specialists deliver superior returns? How do LPs allocate capital by sector, on what criteria are sector specialists assessed, and what happens when there are long-term shifts in sector performance?

The current environment is nothing new for special situations investors and their advisors; but the macro-economic crisis has given special situations investors a lot to consider. In a recent roundtable, a group of experts discussed the current deal environment, CVAs, corporate carve-outs, and how government support slowdowns will impact the special sits market going forward.

The evolution of due diligence, the shift in manager focus on DD pre-deal in a post-COVID era and what will be the new normal DD agenda.

Alice Murray talks to Troy Pospisil, founder and CEO of InCloudCounsel  about what it is, how it works and how it supports private equity legal  teams, as well as the wider organization.

In today’s third instalment of the series, we are going to take an in-depth look at the evolution of the European LP base and what this means for managers. The European investor base has evolved from local pockets of LPs supporting domestic managers into a diverse mix of investors with different objectives, priorities, and manager selection criteria. Here to guide us through to explain how and why the investors base has changed I am joined by two guests – podcast regular and MVision founder Mounir Guen and Jim Strang who, who chairs the EMEA investment committee for global private markets investor Hamilton Lane.

Real Deals Tech Podcast The pandemic has left a variety of market sectors in disarray. Technology companies, especially those in digitisation and enterprise software, are proving to be among the most resilient investments, projected to return some of the highest exit multiples in the current environment. Once wary of tech, an increasing number of PE firms are looking to move into what has become a robust place to invest. Joining us on the Real Deal Tech discussion: David Barbour, managing partner at FPE Capital   Jonathan Simnett, technology M&A dealmaker and marketer at Hampleton Partners  Brian Parker, head of M&A at ICON Corporate Finance  Darran Green, partner at Rockpool Investments

Alice Murray talks to Mike Dickey, head of product at MUFG Investor Services, about the data flow of ESG information between GP and LP. While not a new topic for private equity, ESG has received more attention since the onset of the pandemic. Dickey discusses the push and pull between GPs and their LPs when it comes to sharing ESG information. He observes the variances between some GPs resistant to providing more data that isn’t readily available, and others looking for ways to use ESG as a value driver. He details the difficulties involved with reporting on ESG due to difficult to reach information and a lack of standardisation. But points out that the increasing popularity of impact funds will likely push for better guidelines.

This second instalment discusses data warehousing, the infrastructure that sits around it, data governance, data ingestion, data analytics and how these components impact cybersecurity. According to Ralph, it’s more important than ever to understand these elements well. He places particular importance on the compliance part of data management, ensuring only the necessary people have access to the systems. Ralph shares his deep technical expertise on how to protect data management systems from cyber threats. He also discusses various configurations in terms of working with partners and third party providers.

Data and the various ways in which private equity can apply it has become a hugely important topic in light of the recent disruption. While the industry is well aware of the advantages that data applications can bring about - across all functions (deal doing, portfolio monitoring, fundraising and operations) - the highly nuanced nature of private equity has meant that it's more challenging to apply generic software and technologies seen in adjacent industries. This first instalment explores the nuances of developing data strategies, depending on the firm’s size, focus and willingness to adopt new technologies. We also discuss mindsets needed and common cultural barriers to integrating data applications, as well as the importance of collaboration and selecting the right partners to work with. If you only need a sentence for the description: use this: This first instalment explores the nuances of developing data strategies, depending on the firm’s size, focus and willingness to adopt new technologies.

Private capital funds have been diligently upgrading and improving their data, digital and technological infrastructure in recent years. With these kinds of projects often requiring lengthy implementations, migrations and staff training - many GPs find themselves unsure as to how to progress with upgrades and changes previously planned, but likely put on hold due to Coronavirus. Danny Trentacosta of MUFG Investor Services sits down with The Drawdown Editor Alice Murray to discuss why now is the perfect time for operational leaders to return to and reassess their upgrade plans.