The PEindustry is laboring under the burdens of high asset prices, the reluctance of Indian business owners to sell controlling stakes in the companies and virtually no viable exit options to provide liquidity.
In a series of posts over the coming weeks, we will describe how the interplay of macroeconomic conditions and circumstances unique to the PEindustry are influencing private equity investments, exits, fund-raising and returns.
Trailing twelve months PE of 39x is well above the industry average of 12x, but forward PE of 11x shows WNC trading at a discount to the industry average of 14x.
As private equity enters 2013, the industry is poised to benefit from strengthening fundamentals, and it would not take much to rouse PE activity out of its slumber.
Like any industry sensitive to macroeconomic shifts, credit-market turmoil and volatile equity values, global private equity (PE) has had to navigate through booms and busts over the decades (see figure).