2025-09-19
36 分钟Money Talks from The Economist is sponsored by Wharton Executive Education.
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Tell me what private equity is and what it is that you do.
It all sounds so easy.
What we do is pretty simple.
We raise large amounts of money.
Firms like Blackstone are the kings of private equity.
And then we buy companies using those funds.
We try to improve the companies and we own them for a while and then we sell them and hopefully make a lot of money for our investors.
That is what we do.
The surge of private equity was supported by years of ultra low interest rates.
Dealmaking hit a peak in 2021 as those low borrowing costs met a COVID rebound and fiscal support.
Private equity money was washing through Britain and much of the rest of the developed world.
Essentially,
you walk down any UK high street and the chances are you're going to be looking at private equity owned firms on either side.
The body shop.
But now, could all that money be drying up?
Private equity funds are struggling to exit profitably.