Intertrust Group recently surveyed 300+ private capital CFOs from around the world to ask them how they expect their roles to evolve over the next decade.
The results were compelling – and highlighted an urgent need for transformation in the private capital space.
Respondents to the survey, conducted in partnership with Global Custodian, anticipate a sharp rise in reporting demands from their LPs over the coming years. Many expect a requirement for daily, or even live updates. As trends such as ESG become even more widespread, the diversity and depth of this reporting will only become more complex – so private capital funds must pick the right tools to help them deliver.
In this journey towards greater transparency, private capital CFOs say they’ll look to one of these three options: outsourcing operations, investing in more technology, or hiring in more talent.
This report includes the findings of the survey exercise as well as comment and reaction to those findings from Intertrust Group executives. The results below are based on responses from private capital fund CFOs or their immediate reports.
The three largest private capital markets – the US (29%), UK (23%), and China (18%) – accounted for the majority of responses with the bulk of the remainder coming from Western Europe. All in all, over 300 individual responses were received.
Assets under management of respondents ranged from less than $1 billion (36%) through $1-10 billion (34%), $10-50 billion (23%) to more than $50 billion (7%). Funds included private equity (36%), private debt (22%), infrastructure (24%) and real estate (15%).
In a parallel survey, investors in private capital funds were surveyed to act as a check on whether their views aligned with those of the CFOs. Some 103 investors were surveyed, primarily from the US, UK and China.