We're getting granular (Editor's letter)

Even before the financial markets went off a cliff, we at PEI Manager found ourselves writing the word “granular” a lot. This usually came in the context of our reporting that LPs demand more granular detail from their GPs.

Today, with investors of all stripes grappling to better understand their exposures, LPs are even more insistent on being served up portfolio details that previously would have been known only perhaps to the GP overseeing the deal. Private equity firms, even while downsizing deal staff, are keeping or increasing staff devoted to investor reporting, such is the demand for information.

You will find in the April issue of PEI Manager an article by Kevin Ley (see p. 20) about how best to share information in a type of transaction that all GPs will eventually have to approve – a secondaries deal. As Ley writes, IR systems once used mostly for reporting are now becoming virtual data rooms for secondaries deals.

Just as LPs have demanded more granularity from their GPs, the community of CFOs, COOs, general counsel, IR professionals and compliance officers who read PEI Manager have demanded more granularity from us. Reader feedback has told us loud and clear that we need to provide more analysis of the trends and developments that most directly impact our readers. This means more valuation and accounting analysis, more tax solutions, more regulatory insights, more legal advice, more terms and conditions guidance and more best practices in investor reporting.

You are already aware that the Intelligence section at the front of PEI Manager delivers updates on these and other topics. You will note in this issue that we have greatly expanded the length of the Intelligence section, and also greatly focused the attention on the aforementioned nitty-gritty topics. We're not surprised that our readers want more of this content – the markets in which private equity is most active have become breeding grounds of new policies, regulations, taxes and risks, and managers of private equity firms need to deftly navigate these hazards. PEI Manager intends to remain the authoritative channel for information that helps them do just that.

Our market intelligence service will continue to evolve as the months go by in ways that will deliver news to you in an even more timely, more actionable manner.

Enjoy the issue,

By David Snow
david.s@peimedia.com