Hamilton Lane's Hirsch: Private markets industry has too many GPs
Erik Hirsch, executive co-chairman of Hamilton Lane, joins PEI's Adam Le to analyze structural shifts across the private markets industry. Hirsch argues that the sluggish fundraising environment is primarily caused by an oversupply of underperforming general partners rather than cyclical headwinds, while addressing the persistence of zombie funds, the expansion of the secondaries market, and valuation disparities between public and private equities. He also outlines why Hamilton Lane continues investing in software assets despite market panic over generative artificial intelligence disruption.
- Hamilton Lane proprietary data shows performance dispersion between top-quartile and bottom-quartile buyout sponsors remains as wide today as it was twenty years ago. Read →
- Public equities trade near the 90th percentile of their historical performance averages, driven by heavy concentration in correlated mega-cap technology and artificial intelligence names. Read →
- Secondaries offer portfolio flexibility, but Erik Hirsch notes that trading stakes between balance sheets does not create genuine cash liquidity at the underlying asset level. Read →
- The vast majority of private equity portfolio assets have enterprise values below $1 billion, putting them far below the size threshold public stock markets now demand. Read →