These are interesting times for private equity houses. Fundraising has become a matter of proven exits and operational improvement initiatives through periods of investment. Australian investors are reviewing their private equity allocations because of regulatory changes such as MySuper. This has resulted in the need for houses to head offshore for funds. Even with the gradual increase in merger and acquisition (M&A) activity globally, the scope for the private equity house to leverage transactions aggressively is reduced.

In today's market a new focus on building value and managing performance from existing assets emerges. Private equity houses are likely to need a wider range of skills at their disposal than is necessary purely for deals.

Therefore, the services our clients traditionally expect from us have broadened beyond the deal and taken on a longer-term context.

KPMG is now taking one of the leading positions in offering a combined approach to helping our private equity clients with their strategic, deal and portfolio management issues.

Our involvement covers:

• fundraising (tax structuring)
• finding and consummating investments and deals
• management advice
• portfolio management
• realising value.

We have a broad range of skills, comprising experienced private equity advisers from corporate finance, transaction and commercial due diligence and tax. We have the skills our private equity clients need to help support them, through the fundraising and investment lifecycles.