The rush into private markets is turning into a stampede. It is hard to meet anyone in the investment world who is not far more excited about the prospects for private credit, infrastructure, venture capital, forestry and the like than the conventional world of listed shares and bonds. Even private equity, in the long run, is still seen as a massive growth sector once it clambers over the hump of adjusting to permanently higher interest rates.
BlackRock’s decision to fork out £2.6 billion for Preqin, the British group that supplies data on private assets, shows the way the world is changing. The American index-tracking colossus may manage $10.5 trillion of largely listed assets, but it sees future growth increasingly in the unlisted space.
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