Private equity assets under management are expected to nearly double to reach $12 trillion by 2029, from $5.8 trillion in 2023, according to Preqin – making the sector one of the fastest-growing asset classes in the world.
Private equity accounts for over half of private markets investments, but private credit/debt and real assets are also growing rapidly as investors seek to capitalise on the potential returns on offer.
The average investor has traditionally been locked out of this market. That’s now starting to change.
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The private equity industry is dominated by a number of investment giants, which raise money from institutional investors to fund deals via giant pooled funds. For instance, EQT, Europe’s largest private equity investor – and the third-largest in the world – closed the largest private equity fund in 2024 at $22.67 billion for its flagship fund, investing mainly in healthcare technology in Europe and North America.
Private equity investors aim to buy businesses, either by taking companies private via a takeover on an exchange, such as the London Stock Exchange, or buying directly from other investors.
Over the past decade, take-private deals across Europe have totalled more than $1 trillion. Last year, private equity investors spent £63bn buying British companies as buyout firms took advantage of low valuations.
When they have acquired a business, private equity owners try to add value: driving strategic growth by expanding into new markets, increasing efficiency and bringing in different managers. They can also merge the businesses with other entities to achieve economies of scale.
Private markets funds are usually exclusively available to wealthy investors, with minimum investments starting at the £5 million to £10 million range. It’s also common for funds to demand lockups for 5-10 years or more.
These requirements have locked regular investors out of the profits to be made. If you’d put $10,000 into a hypothetical basket of Private Equity funds in 1999, it could be worth $200,000 today – compared to less than $40,000 from an equivalent basket of public equity funds. Past performance is not a guide to the future.
Opening up
The emergence and increasing popularity of semi-liquid, or evergreen, private markets funds have helped democratise the market. Structured in a way that’s very similar to unit trusts, with a few restrictions, they allow investors to invest at regular intervals, and capital is promptly deployed across a diversified private equity portfolio. Crucially, semi-liquid funds are designed to offer investors periodic liquidity so you can request to withdraw your money on a rolling basis, often quarterly.
Eligible investors can now potentially access leading semi-liquid private markets funds from just £10,000. This shift has led to a substantial uptake across the Atlantic, where they have raised over $380 billion from “everyday millionaires” looking to diversify their portfolios beyond traditional stocks and bonds.
Many leading private equity investors have launched evergreen versions of their large institutional funds. EQT, for instance, has created the Nexus platform specifically for private investors. Brookfield and Oaktree, leading investors in alternative assets and private credit respectively, have come together and created Brookfield Oaktree Wealth Solutions to deliver institutional-calibre alternative expertise to private investors. Meanwhile, BlackRock, which became the world’s biggest asset manager by making access to stocks and bonds easy, is now trying to do the same for private assets.
To allow investors to participate, Wealth Club has developed a first-of-its-kind platform to give eligible UK investors access to some of the world’s leading Private Equity and Private Markets fund managers.
(Image credit: Wealth Club)
Want to learn more? Download your free guide
If you are an experienced investor curious about the world of private equity and how you might now be able to access this asset class, Wealth Club has produced a comprehensive free guide, Investing in Private Equity and Private Markets. This guide explains what Private Markets and Private Equity are, how they work, the potential benefits, and importantly, the risks involved. It also details how eligible investors could potentially invest from just £10,000. You can download it here.
Private Markets investments are high risk and illiquid. You could lose your capital. Only High Net Worth Individuals or Sophisticated Investors are eligible to invest. Promotion issued by Wealth Club Ltd, a non-advisory service.
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