Private equity investors also bought thousands of healthcare facilities in the US in recent years, including non-profit hospice care, rural hospitals and small-town dentists’ offices.

But this wave of buyouts is running smack into a wall of persistently high interest rates, rising buyout prices and pressure over moribund returns.

Private equity funds are sitting on a “record number of unsold companies, many of which they’ve been unable to sell … or at least unable to sell at the prices that they’re looking for”, said Jim Baker, the executive director of the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, an industry watchdog.

The current catastrophic bullshitting tool of choice for the Finance industry is Private Equity.

Also see https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/04/private-equity-boom-hospital-job-layoff

It’s unclear whether we have a total crisis on our hands, in part due to shady reporting standards at pension funds, but it is clear that we have a real problem in private credit regardless. The issue is downstream of the problem in private equity where holding periods are up, and by extension, the net asset value (NAV) of funds held over seven years (sometimes referred to as “zombie funds”) has doubled since 2021. They can’t sell the asset, so they build continuation vehicles to recapitalize and hide the struggle that’s going on. But the real risk of this slowdown weighs on retirees, current and future.

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[–] 18 points 2 months ago (1 child)

God I hope the PE glut nukes itself. That would be so fucking incredible for the long term, in so many different ways, in a ton of different domains.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

    As long as there's capitalism, there'll be capitalists. I get poo-pooed almost every time I say this, but you'll never convince me the words capitalism and capitalize - meaning "to take advantage of" - are unrelated. Yeah, the inevitable massive recession/depression that is coming will cause some regulation to happen, but those behind it will do their damnedest to keep it as minimal as possible so they can pull their shit again, followed by gradual perversion of any regs they can't prevent from the get-go.

    EDIT:
    TL;DR: They may dig their graves, but - like the undead - they'll be back to suck the life out of the living.

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  • [–] 14 points 2 months ago* (3 children)

    One has to ask "Where does the money in private equity come from?" and the answer is "high net worth individuals and institutions" i.e. billionaires make up a large part, and the rest is other large pools of cash such as sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, etc.

    So the answer is that private equity phenomenon is the result of income inequality, i.e. people with large quantities of cash that they personally have no idea what to do with.

    The extremely rich loan their money to "private equity fund managers" who charge exorbitant fees and comissions to make sure that their clients' cash doesn't lose value to inflation.

    So if you're asking why a nice small company that you like gets bought by private equity, then enshittified or closed down, not because it isn't profitable, but because it isn't making enough money, there's your answer.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Mostly spot on. I'd add that a lot of pensions and 401ks are wrapped up in private equity/credit as they've been showing good returns (on paper at least). I'm rooting for their demise but expect if/when they take a big hit, it won't just be billionaires hurt

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago

    We need a law banning private equity firms in medical care and residential housing. Actually, they shouldn't be allowed period. Nobody can start a business with their stupid high ever increasing rents. They are a scourge to society and should be penalized out of it.

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  • 8 comments in c/economics@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 19 points 2 months ago

    Won’t somebody think of the private equity firms?!?

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  • [–] 14 points 2 months ago
    [–] 14 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Weird that the first bit of consumer investment advice you get is to manage risk and to avoid overleveraging because nobody's coming to save you, yet when the big fish fuck around they expect bailouts and golden parachutes.

    Hard to find even a shred of empathy towards that situation. Don't play fuck around if you don't want to find out.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    When your business model is "we can do this better than others -maxxed" your assumption is there will always be another sucker. 30 years of taking dumps and selling trash has others learning caution and not willing to buy on a hope and a dream. Suddenly when the suckers dry up business is challenging? You have no model.

    Data point; I've only had 2-3 PE job conversations in the last 15 years and have had 2 in the last 2 months as I explore the market and both mention that the management Equity are "looking to exit" in the next 18 months. Everyone looking to be a "PE expert" type company and everyone forgetting we actually need companies run for the long-term; ratio of "experts" to actual doers is definitely too high.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    It's almost as if you take on some risk when you buy companies 🤔

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  • [–] 8 points 2 months ago

    "When they go down, either you need to bail them out, or you need to find someone to save them..."

    Answered their own question.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    Incoming bailout

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