P.E. Firms Inching Toward Public

While market watchers comment on the growing blur between hedge funds and private equity, p.e. firms are losing their sharp private focus and are mulling moves to become public. Private equity, reports Reuters, is facing not only an increasing shortage of good buyout opportunities, but also the graying of top directors, “fund-raising fatigue” and a need to diversify. Already p.e. giants The Blackstone Group and The Carlyle Group are considering going at least partly public, and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is listing a publicly traded fund in Europe. The transition may not always be lucrative, as evidenced by the “mixed” results of some recent IPOs, says Reuters. What’s more, private equity firms will be forced to become more open about such things as executive compensation. Still, the need to grow may overpower the risks. “If funds can find a way to raise permanent capital, they will do it,” attorney Jeffrey Tabak, a p.e. fund-raising specialist at the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges, told Reuters. “And, right now, they are looking at various vehicles and structures to accomplish this.” These include, says Yahoo, creating foreign investment corporations, real estate investment trusts and special purpose acquisition companies, to name a few.