The opportunities for investors in private equity

A shift away from listed stocks towards privately-held companies reflects the advantages of private equity. No portfolio should be without exposure to this form of investment, says Max King

A shift away from listed stocks towards privately-held companies reflects the advantages of private equity. No portfolio should be without exposure to this form of investment, says Max King.

Stockmarkets are shrinking and ageing. Since peaking in 1996, the number of publicly listed companies in the US has halved while the number owned privately has multiplied nearly fivefold, according to a study by private equity managers Pantheon Ventures. It reveals similar findings in other countries. "The remaining companies are older, larger and slower growing" while "the median age at which companies went public has increased from seven years in 1980-1996, when 285 companies were listing a year, to 11 in 1996-2016, when 136 were listing".

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Max King
Investment Writer

Max has an Economics degree from the University of Cambridge and is a chartered accountant. He worked at Investec Asset Management for 12 years, managing multi-asset funds investing in internally and externally managed funds, including investment trusts. This included a fund of investment trusts which grew to £120m+. Max has managed ten investment trusts (winning many awards) and sat on the boards of three trusts – two directorships are still active.

After 39 years in financial services, including 30 as a professional fund manager, Max took semi-retirement in 2017. Max has been a MoneyWeek columnist since 2016 writing about investment funds and more generally on markets online, plus occasional opinion pieces. He also writes for the Investment Trust Handbook each year and has contributed to The Daily Telegraph and other publications. See here for details of current investments held by Max.