“12 is the new 5”: private equity’s shift from structure to substance

After a decade defined by cheap debt and rising multiples, the private equity industry has entered a more selective phase.

The excess of 2021/22 masked how much of the industry’s performance depended on leverage, multiple expansion, and abundant liquidity.

That model has not entirely collapsed, but it does not clear as much as it used to. What is emerging instead is a more selective market, where capital is available but conditional, and where returns depend more on executi…