Global financial markets have undergone a seismic change in the last 30 years. The number of public companies has slumped from a peak of 7,300 in 1996 to 4,300 today. Companies are delisting and initial public offerings (IPOs) have slowed to a crawl, with many firms choosing to stay private for longer, or never list at all. This shift has left public equity investors with a narrower market. Most growth stories are off-exchange: of the 159,000 companies making annual sales of $100 million or more, 140,000 are privately owned.

To gain exposure to this vast swathe of private companies, investors need to turn to private-equity funds. These funds, which have been around for decades, raise capital to buy companies with the aim of growing the business and eventually selling it at a profit. In the 25 years from 1999-2024, annualised returns on private-equity funds surpassed those of global listed equity funds by 7.3% a year.