Jun 2, 2026 · A&O Shearman
Private capital has moved from the margins to the centre of global finance. The implications for boards, borrowers and regulators are only beginning to be felt.
For much of the last decade, private capital was described as an alternative. That framing no longer holds. Private credit, private equity and the growing universe of continuation and secondary structures now sit at the heart of how large businesses are financed, owned and eventually sold.
The shift changes the questions boards must ask. Access to capital is rarely the constraint; the discipline lies in structuring it well — aligning incentives, anticipating liquidity events, and building governance that holds up across a longer, more private ownership horizon.
For advisers, the premium is on teams that can move fluently between the financing, the transaction and the regulatory overlay. A private-credit facility, a bolt-on acquisition and a fund-level liquidity solution increasingly form a single, connected strategy rather than three separate workstreams.
The organisations that navigate this well treat private capital not as a source of funds but as a long-term relationship — one that rewards clarity, trusted information and a single, coordinated view of where value is created.
