Summits Day
What role is currency volatility and cross-border capital flow disruption playing in shaping secondaries deal flow globally? Is the current slowdown in exits a temporary cyclical issue, or a structural shift the market needs to adapt to permanently? Looking ahead, is the secondaries market built to be a stabilizing force in private markets during macro turbulence, or is it still exposed to the same cyclical pressures as the rest of the industry?
How has the LP mindset toward secondaries changed over the past few years — from a tool of last resort to something more deliberate? How central has secondaries activity become to LPs' broader portfolio construction and risk management decisions? What would make LPs more confident committing further capital or inventory to this market over the next few years?
What distinguishes a continuation vehicle used as a genuine value-creation strategy from one used to mask a lack of exit options? What market data or performance trends best support the case that GP-leds are becoming a mainstream strategic tool rather than an exception? How are secondaries buyers factoring in this shift in narrative when evaluating continuation vehicle opportunities?
What is driving the recent surge in LP-led transactions: is it genuinely new structural demand, or a cyclical response to the denominator effect and slower distributions? Are LPs selling today for fundamentally different reasons than they were two or three years ago? What would it take for LP-led secondaries to become a standard, expected feature of every institutional portfolio's rebalancing toolkit?
Is the mid-market genuinely underserved, or has that narrative become outdated as more dedicated funds have launched to target it? How much of the current interest in mid-market secondaries is driven by genuine opportunity versus simply overflow from oversubscribed large-cap funds? Is specialisation the only sustainable edge left in mid-market secondaries, or is there still room for generalist strategies to win?
In what specific ways are evergreen funds changing how secondaries deals get priced, sourced, or structured? What distinguishes genuine market disruption from evergreen funds simply adapting existing secondaries tools to a new fund structure? Five years from now, will evergreen funds be seen as having permanently changed how the secondaries market operates, or as a structure that got tested by a downturn and had to adapt or retreat?
What is the strongest evidence that this is still an early-stage opportunity, rather than a trade that's already been priced to perfection? How exposed is the credit secondaries market to a broader credit cycle downturn, and has that risk been adequately tested given how young this market still is? Who are the dominant buyers in credit secondaries today, and is that buyer base diverse enough to support healthy, sustained price discovery?
What's driving the current wave of capital into infrastructure secondaries? What specific investor needs are infrastructure secondaries uniquely suited to solve right now? Is GP-led activity in infrastructure secondaries being used to extend value creation on strong assets, or to delay difficult decisions on underperforming ones?
End of the Secondaries Summit
As volatility reshapes fund performance, capital deployment, and portfolio strategy, this panel examines how private capital leaders are managing investor confidence, assessing risk, and positioning for resilience in an era of sustained uncertainty
As LPs demand real distributions over paper returns, and fundraising consolidates around established managers while smaller funds struggle to compete, how are liquidity solutions and sector diversification paving the path to rebuild trust and revive fundraising momentum in 2027? Which segments are seeing renewed momentum and why?
How are firms leveraging AI tools to sharpen sourcing and due diligence, drive portfolio transformation, and gain a competitive edge, while confronting the workforce and operational disruption that comes with adoption? Where is AI delivering real value today, and where does the hype outpace the results?
Mapping the evolving opportunity set and institutional allocation trends over the next three to five years amid intensified competition: how are GPs differentiating as the asset class scales toward trillions in AUM?
Weighing the liquidity, valuation, and operational risks against the opportunity to access durable, scalable capital as manager demand for permanent capital grows and institutional LPs navigate changing liquidity expectations
Navigating economic and policy headwinds to build the infrastructure, capital, and leadership pathways to unlock sustainable growth, boost productivity and improve decision-making through structural innovation
Join one of 7 topic-focused roundtables. Spaces are first-come, first-served. 2 hosts per roundtable Table 1: Approaches to value creation through operational execution, finance transformation, and human capital Table 2: Opportunities for mid/lower mid-market funds Table 3: Chasing retail capital: how GP expansion into wealth channels will reshape private equity Table 4: The LP perspective: value creation, fund terms, and manager selection Table 5: ESG meets alpha: where values and returns align today Table 6: Secondaries: opportunity meets liquidity Table 7: AI – value creation lever? |
Networking Drinks in the Summit Room, 17.45-18.30
End of the Women in Private Markets Summit
Sports ownership was previously largely driven by passion and prestige — how much of that still exists today, and how much has been replaced by pure financial logic? How are fund structures built around sports investments evolving to meet the return expectations and liquidity needs of institutional LPs? What governance changes have been most important in making sport viable for institutional capital — ownership rules, financial transparency, league structures?
Which revenue streams beyond match-day ticketing are proving most valuable in a multi-use stadium model? What financing structures are proving most effective for stadium projects that combine sports, real estate, and commercial development? What exit strategies exist for investors in multi-use stadium real estate, given the scale and long time horizons typically involved?
How fundamentally has the sports media rights landscape changed over the past five years, and is "disruption" still the right word for where we are now? Streaming platforms, tech giants, and traditional broadcasters are all competing for the same rights — what does the current bidding landscape actually look like, and who holds the leverage? What would meaningful success look like for an investor entering the sports media rights space today?
What is actually driving the current surge of institutional capital into sport, and is this growth structural or cyclical? What lessons from traditional private equity playbooks translate well to sport, and which ones fail because of the sector's unique dynamics? Looking three to five years ahead, where does the "next wave" of sports investment opportunity lie?
End of the Sports Investing Summit
How are global political and macroeconomic risks being priced into German deals, and has that changed meaningfully in the past year? Which sectors are proving most resilient to the current political and economic turbulence, and which are most exposed? What is the single most important factor that will determine whether Germany strengthens or weakens its position as a destination for private equity capital?
Where is the Mittelstand innovating, and where is it falling behind? How resilient has the Mittelstand proven itself to be through the recent run of crises — energy costs, supply chain shocks, and weak domestic demand? What reasons for optimism or concern are there about the state of the Mittelstand over the next 5-10 years?
What's the single biggest challenge facing German private equity right now — financing conditions, exit timelines, regulation, or something else entirely? What would it take for German PE to move from merely surviving these headwinds to genuinely thriving again? Are the headwinds German PE firms face today fundamentally different from previous downturns, or is this just a more intense version of familiar cyclical pressure?
How does current LP sentiment towards Germany compare with sentiment towards other major European markets, such as France, the UK, or the Nordics? Is there a gap between what LPs say publicly about Germany and what they're actually doing with their allocations? A year from now, is LP sentiment towards Germany likely to look notably different, or is this a longer stretch of ambivalence?
What's the single biggest factor driving German private capital to shift away from traditional assets and toward digital infrastructure right now? How are investors balancing the long-term, infrastructure-like return profile of these assets with the faster-moving technology and operational risks involved? Where is the biggest gap between where capital is currently flowing and where the real opportunity lies?
Where in the defence supply chain does private capital add the most value right now? What does a credible exit path look like for private capital in German defence — IPO, strategic sale to a prime, or continued private ownership? If private capital succeeds in bridging this gap, what does the German defence industrial base look like in five years compared to today?
Which parts of the German industrial base are structurally positioned to benefit, and which are at risk of being left behind despite the broader narrative? Which segments of German industry are genuinely being rebuilt versus simply being subsidized or protected? How does Germany's industrial reset compare to similar reshoring and reindustrialisation efforts elsewhere in Europe or the US — and does it have any genuine competitive edge?
Which sectors or deal types are expected to define German PE activity over the next five to ten years? What specifically makes Germany stand out as a destination for private capital compared to other European markets? Where does Germany have a genuine structural edge globally, and where is it still playing catch-up?
End of the German Private Equity Summit
To what extent will private credit’s next chapter be shaped by macroeconomic forces? Predicting the path of monetary policy, growth and credit conditions over the next 5 years. What will this mean for borrower health, default rates and what is the relative attractiveness of private credit versus fixed-income alternatives? How resilient is the private credit model as it enters its next phase of growth?
How appealing is Europe's private credit landscape in 2027 and beyond? Hot sectors, hidden risks, and where the smart capital is moving
Examining the prospects for retail and semi-liquid fund growth and evergreen structures. How are retail investors reshaping the way direct lenders raise capital and how will this affect institutional LP demands in 2027 and beyond?
AI has emerged as an operational opportunity for underwriting, monitoring and due diligence and a disruptive force to shape the “next era” of the industry. Comparing internal efficiency gains against portfolio-level risk — what does the future hold?
Taking advantage of structural financing gaps in energy, infrastructure, real estate and digital infrastructure. Assessing where the strongest risk-adjusted opportunities lie and how underwriting and structuring differ from traditional corporate direct lending. How does real asset debt fit into portfolio diversification for both institutional and retail-facing strategies?
Understanding private credit's rapid growth and predicting what the future holds for the industry
How are allocators expected to recalibrate portfolios over the next three to five years — and what are the implications of a more competitive fundraising environment for managers of all sizes?
As leading private credit managers race to build multi-strategy platforms, what's driving the push into private investment grade lending and NAV-based financing, and what capabilities, capital, and talent does it take to scale credibly into these adjacent strategies?
As smaller managers merge or get acquired and borrowers pursue buy-and-build strategies, how is the competitive landscape of the lower mid-market being reshaped, and what does this mean for pricing power, deal access, and specialisation?
End of Private Debt Summit Day One
By invitation only, closed-door session run under the Chatham House Rule. Open to pre-registered banks, corporate investors, development finance institutions, endowments, foundations, insurance companies, investment consultants, pension funds, single family offices, sovereign wealth funds and wealth managers, subject to qualification. For more information, please contact samantha.grannum@informa.com
How are investors reframing strategies away from a pure transition narrative toward resilience and sovereignty? Has “transition” become a dirty word? Addressing geopolitical dependency risks and the shift from "transition" to "addition" of energy sources.
The explosive growth of AI data centres has turned energy from an operating expense into a primary strategic constraint and value driver. From co-located generation to BTM solutions and long-term PPAs, how can institutional investors underwrite, structure and price deals that combine digital infrastructure and power? What happens if demand disappoints and how do LPs think about digital within their portfolios, as some are over-allocated and others under-allocated?
LP-only panel discussion with live Q&A
A panel of institutional capital allocators will answer questions from the floor on underwriting risk, key allocation drivers, manager selection, due diligence and more. How do LPs view generalist vs specialist manager performance and do dedicated energy transition managers earn an allocation outside specific mandates?
Exploring the practical commercial realities of financing large-scale storage projects. How do sophisticated investors deploy capital, manage market volatility and extract predictable returns from a rapidly modernising grid? Sharing views on capital structuring and value creation to meet institutional hurdle rates.
Offering practical, unvarnished insight into deals that went wrong. Investors share honest lessons from deals that underperformed. What was missed in due diligence, what went wrong in execution and how can future allocations be better protected?
Sharing insights into navigating the “flight to quality” and the mid-market squeeze. Why isn’t capital reaching mid-market managers and developers who are vital for driving localised renewable projects and grid modernisation? Are mid-market energy funds an overlooked opportunity or a value trap?
Exploring the convergence of energy transition, defence, and cybersecurity and the emergence of defence as the "5th D" alongside the core pillars of the shift. What strategies must we deploy to mitigate OT cyber risks and integrate dual-use technologies for a secure energy transition?
Exploring the key transatlantic differences in policy support and market maturity. How do regulation and capital flows now compare, and where are investors finding the more compelling opportunities?
Exploring practical frameworks for measuring climate value at risk. Can biodiversity credits and ecosystem services generate the commercial cash flows institutions need, with or without blended finance?
Sharing insights on electrification leapfrogging in markets like India and Mexico. How are emerging market economies accelerating decentralised energy adoption ahead of developed markets? How can Europe leverage external leapfrogging models to catalyse both its global investment strategies and domestic energy resilience?
End of the Energy Transition Summit
What does the current AI landscape look like, and does Europe stand in a position of leadership? How are infrastructure and private equity firms underpinning growth across AI in Europe?
How are LPs currently responding to the constraints that traditional LPA structures place on long-term, sovereignty-aligned investing? What sentiment are we seeing around adapting these structures to support technologies critical to European sovereignty?
Do European capital markets need institutional allocators to embrace a more risk-tolerant mindset? Is shifting that mindset the key to widening the pool of capital reaching managers, broadening the number of companies being backed, and ultimately increasing the odds of building globally competitive champions out of Europe?
What does securing access to critical materials and natural resources involve? How are capital allocators, from real assets and infrastructure funds to buyout investors, financing supply chain resilience?
Is venture-backed growth key to creating jobs and driving tax revenue? How does this ultimately strengthen the economic foundation of sovereignty across Europe?
Are quantum computing, biotechnology, and other frontier technologies emerging as the next arena for sovereignty and security? Where should capital allocators be positioning to capture long-term strategic and financial returns?
End of the Tech Sovereignty Summit