Private equity – An absence of exits

On any given day, a scour of Middle East business news reveals that private equity in the region is ‘hot’, owing to favorable conditions at the macroeconomic level or data on fundraising and investment, which seem to be getting bigger. Watchers of the asset class meticulously track which funds are looking for which companies and which opportunities and sectors are attracting the most private equity. The asset class’ behemoths and large-sized deals in infrastructure and other industries dominate headlines. On the surface, the coverage of the asset class looks healthy. However, the component of private equity which is less covered than capital raised and investments is the arm of the asset class which offers the best indicator of performance, the exit. Without appropriate exit data, it has been difficult to see what trend is following the explosive growth in the other sub-data available on private equity, beckoning the question: whither