Editor’s Foreword 2018

Private equity continues to be in growth mode and remains a high-yield asset class. - At EUR 7.3 billion, private equity companies invested more in Germany in 2017 than ever before in a six-month period. This means that the German market is well on the way to setting a new investment record this year. Numerous institutional investors are increasing the proportion of their private equity investments as they expect returns to remain constant in the future. So reports Dominique Senequier, private equity icon and president of ARDIAN, France's largest alternative investment house with 65 billion euros under management. Remarkably, in her editorial for FYB 2018, she argues for a much greater focus on people in the investment sector.

We have analyzed the following TRENDS for you: 1st trend: Private equity funds are raising more and more money for larger and larger funds and are aiming for longer fund maturities, which is definitely in the interest of limited partners (LPs) as they are subject to enormous investment pressure. 2nd trend: Private equity is attractive, new financial investors (general partners = GPs) are constantly emerging in Germany. Over the past four years, more than 40 new PE companies have entered the market. However, they pursue very different strategies.