After a strenuous 2023, the new year has brought a renewed optimism to private market participants.

A brighter macroeconomic outlook for 2024 holds signs of promise. However, the year ahead will not be without its challenges. Geopolitical tensions remain high, and the increasingly stringent regulatory landscape must be navigated more carefully than ever before.

Managers are also grappling with operational concerns. These include the imperative to renew their technology stack, develop suitable environmental, social & governance (ESG) strategies, and harness the potential of artificial intelligence (AI).

In this context, our latest research casts a spotlight on managers’ sentiment today – how they perceive the year to come, the risks and opportunities on which they are focused, and their operational and strategic priorities. Our study, based on qualitative and quantitative research with a global pool of 60 managers, examines how the private markets sector will evolve over the course of 2024 and beyond.

Key findings include:

• Almost two-thirds of respondents (65%) agree that “deal activity will increase in 2024 compared to the previous year”.
• An increased regulatory burden will have a major impact on dealmaking in 2024. 58% see this trend as one of the top two forces affecting the buy-out and exit markets this year.
• More than half of respondents (60%) say regulators are the single biggest source of demand for greater data transparency.
• The vast majority of alternative asset managers surveyed (91%) report that demand for greater data transparency has led them to make changes to their technology strategies.
• Almost two-thirds of respondents (63%) believe private markets are somewhat close to standardizing ESG disclosure and reporting requirements.
• Practitioners continue to explore applications of AI. They believe due diligence (25%), valuations (18%) and risk management (15%) are the areas that stand to benefit the most.

The report is also available on spglobal.com.