Private equity ready to play M&A role

The capital is there, but the amount and cost of funding may be less favourable than it has been in the past.

Much has been made of the difficulties some private equity investors have had with US shale assets given a track record of poorer-than-expected returns on capital, open-ended opex demands and few attractive exit options. But the panellists for PE Live 2 webcast still see private equity playing an active role in any M&A that follows the current price slump. “Private equity funds are obviously well-placed in terms of the capital they have available awaiting deployment,” says Anthony Patten, oil & gas group head at law firm Shearman & Sterling. “And they have moved away beyond just their traditional midstream oil and gas infrastructure and embraced the upstream across multiple juris