Investcorp CEO addresses SuperReturn Dubai

Nemir Kirdar said that the private equity industry could not confine itself to putting funds to use, but also had to put in time and talent to ensure the success of its investments if it were to continue to achieve strong returns while managing risk.

He pointed out that private equity today had a profound impact upon global capital markets and, with over $700bn in investors' capital, had emerged as an enormous financial power accounting for 20% of global mergers and acquisitions and 60% of US IPOs.

Mr Kirdar said:

"In today's market, the pressure from tightening global credit was highlighting the difference between companies who invested capital and those who saw the investment of time and talent as equally important. In the future, as the more advanced private equity firms have already realised, the operational post-acquisition component will remain as the most important success factor in this business, much more so than financial engineering or capital gain resulting from multiple expansion. As long as those of us in this business continue to be invested, in every sense of the word, in companies we acquire this industry should continue to thrive and prosper."

Mr Kirdar also talked about the founding of Investcorp in 1982, explaining that at that time, private equity had no identity: "There was no model to choose to be like, or not to be like..it can be liberating when you have no path to follow."

Today, he believed, private equity still had the ability to create its own future: "It is not constrained by the entrenched interests or growth limits of any one industry and is empowered to go wherever it believes there is an opportunity.

"New markets will continue to open up across the globe, newer investors will continue looking for superior returns, and in places from Dubai to Delhi, Beijing to Buenos Aires, new and mature enterprises alike will be looking for the capital and management capacity to unlock their full potential."