Spotlight: A PEI Podcast

Tariff turmoil, trade wars and real conflict in the Middle East – these are just some of the challenges private equity participants have had to navigate so far this year. Speaking to senior editor Adam Le, David Gross, co-managing partner at Bain Capital [https://privateequityinternational.com/database/institution-profile/id/institution:98d4l/Bain_Capital/], said volatility and uncertainty is nothing new for investors. “I’d be the first to agree that it’s a very disorienting time period,” Gross said. He points out, however, that volatility and uncertainty have characterised almost the past two decades. “Since the global financial crisis, we’ve seen heightened volatility in the investing world. If you just look at the VIX [volatility index] and other metrics, and the market windows that are open in the public market, you’ve seen heightened volatility." Gross, who has been with the firm for 25 years and is also managing partner of Asia, discusses what effective investors need in uncertain environments, the attraction of defence investing in Europe, the exit environment, and why the firm has no current plans to launch a secondaries investment business.

This episode is sponsored by Bouwinvest Real Estate Investors and first appeared on The PERE Podcast The Dutch residential market has remained resilient despite economic turbulence and rising interest rates and is now emerging as a prime destination for international investors. In this episode, Paul van Stiphout of Bouwinvest Real Estate Investors and Jorrit Arissen of Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management unpack the forces driving the market’s strength – from a deep-rooted rental culture and robust occupancy levels to increasing demand for senior and student housing. With the Netherlands facing a housing shortfall, Van Stiphout and Arissen discuss how foreign capital will be essential to bridge the gap. They also explore how demographic trends and public funding cuts are creating opportunities in niche sectors, such as senior living, which saw investment jump to €724 million in 2024.

This episode is sponsored by Pomona Capital and Proskauer and first appeared on Secondaries Investor's Second Thoughts podcast While the Trump administration's tariff announcements and the subsequent unfurling of uncertainty globally does create some headaches, it also creates a tailwind for the LP-led secondaries market. "What the market has trouble adjusting to is uncertainty. And what happens in times of uncertainty, like the times we're dealing in now, is that [M&A and IPO] transactions tend to pull away," Michael Granoff, founder and chief executive of Pomona Capital, said in this episode. "That uncertainty does tend to push more sellers into the secondary market... And so, in a funny way, it's not that we're uncorrelated to the world – we are – but on the other side of things, all of those things that keep us up at night that we're talking about actually create more opportunity for a buyer in the secondaries market." While market participants continued to put their heads down and get deals done that were far along when the tariff announcements occurred, secondaries professionals are still working to digest second- and third-order impacts, Galen Lewis, a partner in Proskauer's private funds group, explained. "Normally, distress of some sort is something that creates additional volume in the secondaries market." In this far-reaching discussion, Granoff and Lewis discuss a variety of issues affecting the LP-led market and the drivers of underlying deal volume, including the regulatory developments that may spur or hinder LP-led portfolio sales in the coming year, the rise of '40 Act capital, as well as new entrants.

This episode is sponsored by AlixPartners The Disruption Matters special podcast miniseries [https://www.privateequityinternational.com/podcast-disruption-matters/] is back for its fourth season, and this year, leading industry experts will discuss how private markets can deliver “weatherproof growth”, despite the headwinds of a tech revolution, geopolitics and volatile global markets. In this second episode, we focus on how best to assess, manage and, where necessary, recruit leaders capable of delivering growth in the face of such macroeconomic uncertainty. We learn about the very special “PhDs” that are fit for the moment, how technology can help with such a task, and how analog issues still matter most when it comes to leadership. Guests include Ted Bililies, global co-leader of transformative leadership at AlixPartners; Jason McDannold, Americas co-leader of private equity at AlixPartners; Hoyoung Pak, global co-leader, AI and data at AlixPartners; Allison Walker, head of talent for FTV Capital; Tyler Wolfram, managing partner of Oak Hill Capital Partners; Ditte Marstrand Wulf, head of leadership and culture at Triton; Andrew Weinberg, founder, CEO and co-chair of Brightstar Capital Partners; and Erik Brooks, founder and managing partner of Ethos Capital. For further reading on this show’s topics: * Transformative Leadership: What it is and why it matters [https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffeatures.alixpartners.com%2Ftransformative-leadership-what-it-is-and-why-it-matters%2F&data=05%7C02%7CRob.Kotecki%40pei.group%7C4741a51e2a7e46baf22f08dda83319d2%7C4268803fe8b94461a707c6de0447fb29%7C1%7C0%7C638851659923457409%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=JV5P3V2GzlEYynfkyfvA8hisfwfCvsHTK4fmn6M9Ke4%3D&reserved=0] * The Golden Age Of AI Experimentation For CEOs | AlixPartners [https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.alixpartners.com%2Finsights%2F102k68u%2Fthe-golden-age-of-ai-experimentation-for-ceos%2F&data=05%7C02%7CRob.Kotecki%40pei.group%7C4741a51e2a7e46baf22f08dda83319d2%7C4268803fe8b94461a707c6de0447fb29%7C1%7C0%7C638851659923494320%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=LIW1BjKGh2ConQjU6iLn1lx4rDWHlqzu%2FemKZbveIic%3D&reserved=0] (part one of two) * AI Alone Won’t See Companies Succeed: Leadership Will | AlixPartners [https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.alixpartners.com%2Finsights%2F102k6hm%2Fai-alone-wont-see-companies-succeed-leadership-will%2F&data=05%7C02%7CRob.Kotecki%40pei.group%7C4741a51e2a7e46baf22f08dda83319d2%7C4268803fe8b94461a707c6de0447fb29%7C1%7C0%7C638851659923512942%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=qFieAzuZwHYqWinW54g0cf8UItxUUEaW7djEVN91mlI%3D&reserved=0] (part two of two) Clips * Any Given Sunday, Oliver Stone, Warner Bros. * Patton, Franklin J Schaffner, 20th Century Fox * Stand and Deliver, Ramón Menéndez, Warner Bros.

Having navigated headwinds from interest rate hikes and secular shifts in office usage and online shopping in recent years, the US commercial mortgage-backed securities market was seemingly embracing a full resurgence. In 2024, its origination hit a record $104.05 billion, a 165 percent increase from the previous year.   While that momentum continued into the first quarter of 2025, it stumbled when the overall capital markets were taken on a volatile ride after the Trump administration’s announcement in April about massive changes in tariffs. As a result, April was a much quieter month for CMBS. Deals got pulled or paused, and there were fewer loans priced.   Borrowers, issuers and bond buyers told PERE Credit that although the activities were slowed down by the unprecedented market volatility, the market stabilized swiftly, with spreads gradually grinding back and new originations returning going into May.  Often viewed as a barometer of the broader commercial real estate market, the sector’s swift recovery after market turmoil signals the resilience of the industry in an uncertain macroeconomic environment. In this episode, Zachary Cohn, managing director at Brookfield Asset Management, and James Stouse, senior director of CMBS credit research at Barings, shared their observations on the CMBS resurgence.  For more insights on this, see PERE Credit‘s June/July cover story.