Conference programme

Two leading private equity (PE) investment bankers from Goldman Sachs will take us through a review of the current state of and last 12 months in the PE world.

Four leading practitioners will talk about current deal issues they are seeing in their respective jurisdictions.

Much has changed in this sector in the last five years, which was recently called ‘one of the most exciting long-term investment opportunities’ by Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock. A leading investor and financial advisor will be joined by two leading lawyers to review how the sector looks today versus then and perhaps how it will look tomorrow.

Four leading debt market participants and one finance lawyer will explore the state of the debt world, the continued growth of non-bank players and how to finance with unstable geo-political developments.

Leading practitioners will do a case study of the all-too-common private equity acquisition of the messy corporate divestment.

Retail investors are a huge potential source of capital for private equity and of great interest to large and small sponsors. Two innovators will discuss how they are trying to reach this holy grail with very different approaches and what risks it poses for the sponsor.

For many participants, the fundraising market has been bleak in recent years, but for some, green shoots are emerging. This panel will present a broad perspective on key issues in the current environment for general partners and limited partners in private equity funds, including secondary transactions. In addition, the panel will explore the increasing interface between limited partner investors and the underlying assets.

Each year we take a deep dive into two key markets for private equity sponsors and their transactional lawyers. This year we look at two important and relatively mature markets: Germany and Spain. The expert panel will look at the current shape of the market in each country and explore important current issues for private equity deal lawyers looking to advise multinational clients.

The private equity industry in its early days, when funds were smaller, often clubbed together on larger deals – and in recent years there has been a resurgence. At the same time, minority investing has sprung up as a distinct strategy. What explains this? What are the challenges and the solutions? How can we effectively trust but protect? These deals are never straight forward and this panel will look at how some of the technical and business issues are being overcome.

This panel is for many the highlight of the conference. What is keeping our clients awake at night? This is where the lawyers from private practice in our audience hear what their clients are worrying about and what they want to see from their outside counsel. The in-house lawyers in our audience will pick up on the trends and challenges that their counterparts in major sponsor houses are tackling currently.