The Great Contradiction
The European private equity landscape is defined by a great contradiction. On one side, a staggering €414 billion in "dry powder" sits ready for deployment into European buyouts. On the other, the volume of high-quality, actionable deals in the visible market has stagnated, creating a hyper-competitive "Red Ocean" where firms overpay for a limited pool of commoditized assets.
This begs a critical question: with so much capital chasing so few opportunities, where are all the good deals hiding?
The answer is that the best opportunities are not in the visible market at all. They exist in a vast, submerged ecosystem of privately-held companies. This article reveals five surprising truths about this hidden deal market and the strategic shift required to access it.