What is really happening in the Australian private equity market?

Our conferences have always provided a venue for the local and international private equity community to get together and discuss critical issues relevant to the industry' best interest. In a way, the discussions and mood of our conference are a harbinger of what happens in the "real world."

We credit our programming team for their intensive research, although it must be said that this is given dimension and impact by our good fortune in always having such great speakers and supporters for the events - experts in the field who are willing to share their knowledge and experience with their peers.

This issue of the magazine, as you can readily see from the cover and stories, is our special pre-conference issue for this stand-out event. Our aim is to give you a glimpse of topics that will be discussed at the conference, as well as a cogent industry overview from some of the best known names in Australian private equity.

A red letter theme in all of this is whether or not the Australian market can sustain current activity levels in the industry, not to mention the rapid advances seen since we held our first event there. Opinions are mixed, as you will read.

As usual, it seems Australian GPs continue to have a resolute confidence regarding prospects, as seen in Brian McLeod's cover story on page 8. While mega deals have largely disappeared, deals in the upper mid-size range are still abundant. However, such transactions don't tend to grab headlines, and hence the misleading sense that the Australian market has slipped, when in fact minus the mega-deals it continues to pulse at a near traditional rate - at a time when many pundits are predicting an imminent M&A boom in the country.
LPs, however, are still feeling the pain from the lack of the lack of returns of their private equity portfolios and like all guardians of people's money, they don't like volatility.

And speaking of volatility, distressed deals, a much sought after asset class earlier on, is fast falling out of favor as reported by Anita Davis on page 13, especially in Australia where there is a relative dearth of such opportunities.

The debate will continue at the conference scheduled for March 2-4. For those who have registered, thank you and rest assured you will be treated to an informative event with plenty of food for thought, plus a lot of high quality networking. For those who can't make it, watch this space.

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• Australasia