Private Equity

Alternative Assets
August 2026

Private Credit’s State Backstop: How Private Equity Socializes Risk Through Insurers

Pranjal Drall, Andrew Granato

Research

65 Pages

This paper examines how private equity firms construct a circular financial loop by acquiring life insurers and directing retirement savings into their own private credit assets.

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Alternative Assets
August 2026

2026 private equity midyear update: Private longer, public later

Vanguard

Matthew Schweitzer, Cameron Dennis

Research

9 Pages

Vanguard examines how companies staying private longer are shifting early growth away from public markets.

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Alternative Assets
August 2026

Investing in Small Companies via Private Equity

Meketa

Luke Riela

Research

10 Pages

Meketa Investment Group argues that the small-company opportunity has migrated rather than disappeared as firms remain private longer.

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Alternative Assets
July 2026

Buyout Performance with Assets Valued at Market

Richard Ennis, Daniel Rasmussen

Research

18 Pages

The authors challenge the idea that buyout funds deliver low-volatility, diversifying alpha by valuing private equity interests at observable market prices.

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Alternative Assets
June 2026

A Conversation with Henry R. Kravis, Co-Founder & Co-Executive Chairman, KKR

Columbia Business School

Henry Kravis

Video

Henry Kravis reflects on KKR’s origins, culture, and lessons from 50 years of building an investment firm from scratch.

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Annual Report
June 2026

Control the Controllable, Weather the Rest: Private Equity Midyear Report 2026

Bain & Company

Hugh MacArthur

Research

18 Pages

Bain & Company examines why private equity’s expected rebound has stalled again despite open debt markets, available dry powder, and resilient public equities.

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Alternative Assets
May 2026

The State of US Private Equity H1 2026

Gain

Sid Jain

Research

36 Pages

Gain examines a U.S. private equity market where deal value is recovering faster than deal count.

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Alternative Assets
May 2026

Leveraged Finance Newsletter Q1 2026

William Blair

Research

11 Pages

William Blair reviews a leveraged finance market that began 2026 with momentum before volatility shifted conditions back toward lenders.

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Alternative Assets
April 2026

The State of US Private Equity Report

Gain

Research

36 Pages

Gain reviews a private equity market that is stabilizing after a volatile cycle, with activity returning but fundamentals shifting. Growth has slowed meaningfully from peak levels, and value creation is now driven more by operations than multiple expansion.

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Alternative Assets
March 2026

Private equity house views 2026

Stepstone

Research

83 Pages

StepStone Group outlines a cautiously improving private equity backdrop for 2026, centered on reopening deal and exit markets.

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Alternative Assets
March 2026

Should Mom Have Private Equity in Her 401K?

Nori Gerardo Lietz

Research

25 Pages

Harvard Business School explains why putting private equity inside a 401k may deliver less benefit than the marketing suggests once fees, illiquidity, and weak performance persistence are considered.

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Alternative Assets
March 2026

Global Private Equity Report 2026

Bain & Company

Research

42 Pages

Deal and exit value surged reassuringly in 2025 in a narrow recovery powered by megadeals.

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Alternative Assets
March 2026

The case for emerging managers

Stepstone

Research

8 Pages

StepStone finds emerging managers—particularly Fund Is—can serve as an attractive source of excess returns within a diversified private equity portfolio.

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Alternative Assets
January 2026

The Private Equity Value Creation Report

Gain

Research

41 Pages

Gain.pro breaks down how private equity creates value from entry to exit across more than 10,000 global investments.

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Alternative Assets
December 2025

The Financing Gap in Sports: Unlocking a $2.5 Trillion Opportunity

Apollo

Al Tylis

Research

15 Pages

Apollo explores how professional sports have become a large, underlevered asset class with a financing gap around $2.5 trillion. They argue that structured and private credit can help owners unlock liquidity while preserving control and long term franchise value.

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Market Outlooks
December 2025

2026 US Private Equity Outlook

PitchBook

Research

18 Pages

PitchBook analyzes how United States private equity enters 2026 with aging portfolios, more selective exits and growing manager concentration.

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Alternative Assets
November 2025

Is Private Equity the New Small Cap? Understanding the Overlap—and the Divide

NEPC

William Forde

Research

5 Pages

William Forde examines the overlap between private equity and U.S. small-cap equities, discussing shrinking public market opportunities, diverging valuations, and how active management can capture value across both segments.

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Alternative Assets
October 2025

In Defense of “What the Stock Market Can Teach Us About Private Equity”

Richard Ennis, Daniel Rasmussen

Research

5 Pages

Ennis and Rasmussen revisit listed private equity using simple annual return tests and argue it resembles high beta public equity with little diversification benefit.

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Alternative Assets
August 2025

What the London Stock Exchange Can Teach Us About Private Equity

Richard Ennis, Daniel Rasmussen

Research

13 Pages

Ennis and Rasmussen analyze listed private equity (LPE) funds on the London Stock Exchange to examine how private equity behaves when marked to market.

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Alternative Assets
July 2025

Leaning Into the Turbulence: Private Equity Midyear Report 2025

Bain & Company

Research

12 Pages

Bain & Company’s Midyear Private Equity Report 2025 reveals that early optimism in the private equity (PE) sector has been tempered by geopolitical uncertainties, notably tariff-related disruptions.

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Portfolio Management
May 2025

What Has Private Equity Done to Small-Cap Stocks?

Marquette Associates

Hayley McCollum, Catherine Hillier

Research

6 Pages

Marquette Associates examines how the expansion of private equity is reshaping small‑cap public markets: firms now stay private longer, capturing growth privately and shrinking the small‑cap universe.

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Alternative Assets
May 2025

Global Private Markets Report 2025: Private equity emerging from the fog

McKinsey & Company

Research

27 Pages

McKinsey provides an in-depth analysis of the private markets landscape in 2024.

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Alternative Assets
May 2025

Global Private Markets Report

McKinsey & Company

Research

92 Pages

McKinsey highlights the resilience of private markets amid uneven 2024 conditions, where fundraising faltered but capital deployment surged and investor allocations remained strong.

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Alternative Assets
April 2025

Taking the Private out of Private Equity, with the Morningstar PitchBook Buyout Replication Index

Morningstar

Sanjay Arya, Andrew Akers

Research

17 Pages

Morningstar and PitchBook introduce the Buyout Replication Index, a public equity portfolio designed to emulate the risk-return profile of private equity buyout funds.

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Alternative Assets
April 2025

Europe: Opportunity in Fragmentation

Davidson Kempner

Research

13 Pages

Davidson Kempner Capital Management argues that Europe's market fragmentation, higher cost of capital, and underdeveloped capital markets create compelling opportunities for flexible capital providers.

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Market Reports
March 2024

Global Private Equity Report 2024

Bain & Company

60 Pages

Private equity faced a dramatically different environment in 2023, with fundraising, deal activity, and exits all contracting.

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Alternative Assets
December 2023

The Dispersion Delusion

Verdad

Brian Chingono, Daniel Rasmussen

Research

8 Pages

Chingono and Rasmussen challenge the notion that private equity’s wide performance dispersion reflects persistent manager skill.

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Alternative Assets
June 2023

Are Private Equity Valuations Too High?

Stepstone

Research

5 Pages

StepStone Group examines whether private equity valuations are genuinely stretched or simply reflect different dynamics than public markets.

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Global Macroeconomics
March 2023

Regime Change: The Role of Private Equity in the ‘Traditional’ Portfolio

KKR

Research

22 Pages

KKR Global Institute examines how private equity can reshape traditional portfolios in a new macro regime where stocks and bonds move together.

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Market Reports
February 2023

Global Private Equity Report 2023

Bain & Company

Research

76 Pages

Bain & Company reviews how global private equity entered 2023 after an abrupt break in a decade long boom.

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Alternative Assets
February 2023

Private Equity’s Other Illiquidity Premium

Man Group

John Lidington

Research

14 Pages

Man Numeric examines how private equity’s appeal rests on smoothed returns, perceived diversification, and an illiquidity premium that may be overstated.

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Alternative Assets
July 2021

Food Fight: An Update on Private Equity Performance vs Public Equity Markets

J.P. Morgan Asset Management

Michael Cembalest

Research

26 Pages

J.P. Morgan examines the ongoing debate over whether private equity truly outperforms public markets, breaking down conflicting methodologies, benchmarks, and assumptions that drive very different conclusions.

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Alternative Assets
February 2021

The Case For Private Equity At Vanguard

Vanguard

Fran Kinniry

Research

16 Pages

Vanguard examines private equity returns and the drivers behind their historical outperformance relative to public markets, focusing on leverage, sector exposure, and selection effects.

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Market Outlooks
December 2020

2020 Private Equity Outlook

Verus Investments

Research

42 Pages

Verus examines the rise of GP-led secondary transactions in private equity and how they are evolving into a core liquidity tool rather than a niche solution.

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Alternative Assets
December 2019

The Illiquidity Discount?

AQR

Cliff Asness

Research

4 Pages

Cliff Asness challenges the conventional belief that illiquid assets should offer higher returns, arguing instead that extreme illiquidity may lead investors to accept lower expected returns in exchange for smoother, less visible volatility.

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Alternative Assets
July 2019

Hedging The Real Risk Of Private Equity

Man Group

Peter van Dooijeweer

Research

9 Pages

Man Group challenges the perceived advantages of private equity, arguing that much of its appeal stems from valuation smoothing rather than true diversification or superior risk-adjusted returns.

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Alternative Assets
February 2019

Global Private Equity Report 2019

Bain & Company

Hugh MacArthur

Research

88 Pages

Bain & Company examines the evolving private equity landscape, focusing on how record dry powder, rising valuations, and longer hold periods are reshaping returns and competition.

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Alternative Assets
September 2018

What Does an EV/EBITDA Multiple Mean?

BlueMountain

Michael Mauboussin, Andrew Feldstein

Research

19 Pages

BlueMountain Investment Research explains what an EV/EBITDA multiple actually represents and why it is often misapplied in valuation.

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Alternative Assets
February 2018

Private Equity: Overvalued and Overrated?

American Affairs

Daniel Rasmussen

Article

16 Pages

American Affairs argues that private equity’s reputation for superior returns is overstated, challenging the narrative that it consistently outperforms public markets.

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Alternative Assets
November 2017

Making Private Equity Great Again

Verdad

Research

6 Pages

Verdad argues private equity’s post 2010 underperformance stems less from leverage and more from inflated entry valuations fueled by institutional capital inflows.

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Alternative Assets
September 2017

Enhancing Private Equity Manager Selection with Deeper Data

eVestment

Research

14 Pages

eVestment explores how private equity manager selection depends less on access and more on disciplined due diligence.

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Alternative Assets
October 2006

The New Paradigm

Oaktree

Howard Marks

Research

13 Pages

Oaktree Capital Management examines how abundant capital, lower risk aversion, and growing enthusiasm for alternative investments have reshaped markets into a dangerous new investment paradigm.

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Alternative Assets
August 2006

The Performance of Reverse Leveraged Buyouts

Josh Lerner, Jerry Cao

Research

43 Pages

This paper examines whether reverse leveraged buyouts, companies taken public after private equity ownership, actually deliver strong post IPO performance.

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