The intriguing success of private equity

When a candidate for the French presidency declares: ‘My enemy is finance’, he takes care not to specify what he will do to facilitate access to finance for the many companies shunned by the markets (the Stock Exchange) or by the big banks, which are all the less interested in small businesses as they are corseted by draconian international prudential regulations. Should we be surprised, then, by the success of private equity (investment in unlisted companies)? Is it as suspect and deregulated as some claim, or merely a symptom of a malfunction in the plumbing of today's capitalist system? Dominique Senequier, CEO of the European leader in this sector, highlights the necessary skills for financing and supporting LBO-type entrepreneurial projects, to give them extra ambition and security. These skills are similar to those of the bankers of the industrial revolution...