The risky world of private assets opens up to retail investors
Fund managers smell an opportunity to get even bigger
This was supposed to be the year when initial public offerings (IPOs) came roaring back. Late in 2024 stockmarkets were hitting all-time highs and a cluster of privately owned superstars, with valuations in the tens or hundreds of billions of dollars, were preparing to go public. But now the market is frozen. As the world’s trading system disintegrates before bosses’ eyes, deals of all sorts, whether IPOs or mergers, have ground to a halt.
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This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “PE for the people”
Finance & economics
May 3rd 2025- Why China has the upper hand in its trade war with America
- America may be just weeks away from a mighty economic shock
- Vladimir Putin’s money machine is sputtering
- How a mortgage transforms your investment portfolio
- A takeover bid promises consolidation in Italian finance
- The risky world of private assets opens up to retail investors
- Why economists should like booze
From the May 3rd 2025 edition
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The battle to reduce risk has shaped centuries of ventures
Jane Street is chucked out of India. Other firms should be nervous
Around the world, marketmakers now face extra scrutiny
Japan has been hit by investing fever
Will old folk catch the bug?
Don’t invest through the rearview mirror
Markets are supposed to look forward; plenty of investors look back instead
Trump’s trade deals try a creative way to hobble China
To appease the world’s biggest market, countries must anger the world’s biggest trader
The great dealmaker is conspicuously short of trade deals
Donald Trump issues threats—and grants deadline extensions