IPEM Paris 2023 - The world's private capital hub

IPEM Paris 2023 is set to be a spectacular festival as the well-established IPEM brand, now in its seventh year, prepares to welcome the international GP and LP community to the City of Light. This is an exciting new chapter for IPEM as it looks to build on the success of its flagship Cannes event, introducing new events to expand its service offering and support the private markets industry. Think of IPEM Paris as a complimentary dish, served alongside Cannes with the same quality of service one is treated to in the city’s 130 Michelin-star restaurants.

What better way to re-engage with the industry and feel enlightened than to head to Paris, September 18th to 20th, having recharged the batteries over the summer? The location is set to be spectacular too. In addition to the main conference activities in the Westin Vendôme on the Rue de Rivoli, IPEM has partnered with the Louvre to erect three individual marquees in the Jardin des Tuileries, spanning 10,000 square meters, which will then become the focus of Paris Fashion Week on 25th September. As far as networking locations go, it doesn’t get much better.

As Antoine Colson, CEO and Managing Partner at IPEM explains, the reason for introducing this new event was in response to demand within the IPEM community for an even more international affair than Cannes. “September is an ideal ‘back to school’ moment for the industry to meet before year-end. We saw this as an interesting window of opportunity to launch something new, complement our existing Cannes event and expand the IPEM value proposition. We are still using the same recipe since we first started in 2016. It is going to be a huge overall venue to accommodate what we anticipate will be close to 5,000 delegates,” he says.

Set in the heart of Paris, against the backdrop of one of the world’s greatest art museums, IPEM Paris 2023 will feature an array of industry luminaries including Steven Schwarzman, CEO and co-founder, Blackstone; Dominique Senequier, Founder & President, Ardian, and José E. Feliciano, co-founder Clearlake Capital Group.

Fundraising opportunities will flourish

More than 650 LPs and a similar number of GPs from over 60 countries are expected to be in attendance, with approximately 40% of GPs flying in from the US. Indeed, the reason for choosing Paris was because of its international accessibility. As a result, IPEM Paris is expected to have a much more ‘fundraising-focused’ feel than Cannes; a unique location that is impossible to match anywhere else in Europe, where the warmth of the Mediterranean attracts Europe’s investment banks, M&A advisors and law firms, and provides the ideal ecosystem for dealmaking. “IPEM Paris will be a bigger, more global event for fundraising. Whereas Cannes is seen as more of an off-site for GPs and LPs, Paris lies at the very heart of Europe’s private market industry,” notes Colson.

The main theme for IPEM Paris 2023 is “Destined to Outperform”.

Day 1 (19th September) will bring an array of GP views on the long-term performance of private markets, and how best to approach updating their performance formula as the industry adapts to a new macroeconomic reality; one where the good old days of low interest rates are but a memory. Throughout the day, delegates will have the opportunity to hear from leading GPs on how they view the coming years, whether sustainability will prove its value, how the buyout space is likely to react to the rising prominence of infrastructure and private credit, and whether growth or value-focused strategies will prove to be the best vintage.

Day 2 (20th September) will focus more on LP perspectives, with sessions covering how LPs select and access top performers, where fundraising is heading, the focus on DPI – new exit routes and liquidity options -, co-investment trends, and whether the industry is entering a new era of the GP/LP relationship.

All of the main conference sessions will be held in the Westin Vendôme, in addition to two of the three summit rooms. Infrastructure, distressed investments, impact, private debt, and democratization of private markets will be discussed during each summit session, giving GPs and LPs plenty of insights on the latest trends and opportunities. The third summit room will be located in the West Tent in the Jardin des Tuileries where four key themes will be explored: venture, women & diversity in PE, secondaries, and climate investing.

It is necessary to acknowledge that what drove private equity growth and performance in the last decade was, in many respects, a golden period, especially for buyout shops able to apply leverage with a low cost of capital. It was a case of rising tides lifting all boats. IPEM’s mission is to continue serving the industry as it adapts to a new market cycle. Colson uses the analogy of applying a software update to further protect the primary operating system and ensure it continues to function properly: “That’s our aim at IPEM Paris 2023: what drove the growth of our industry in the past, and what needs to be done to foster further growth in the future? Performance has always been key but in the current environment it is even more important.”

The geometry of the performance

Within private markets, performance can be analyzed from a variety of angles. The fact that funds are not benchmarked as they are in public markets means that reviewing performance in mid-market private equity, for example, tends to rely on the quality of reporting. This often reveals a wide dispersion of returns between top and bottom-quartile managers.

Will today’s leaders still perform in the next market cycle and stay on top? It’s an important question for the PE industry to think about. As LPs continue to allocate to other asset classes such as private credit and infrastructure, the PE playbook will need updating over the coming years. IPEM Paris 2023 will reflect this in a number of summit sessions across the two days, with a big focus on infrastructure on 19th September and private debt on 20th September. The latter asset class has enjoyed strong growth over the last 12 months as sponsors have turned to private credit funds to finance buyouts.

Private credit is now delivering what used to be seen as PE-like returns, because of the higher interest environment. Both private credit and infrastructure are more effective inflation-hedging tools. Across the two days, the IPEM summit series will provide deep-level discussions on key developments shaping these asset classes, in addition to venture capital, climate investing, distressed investing, and secondaries.

Maximum engagement

The same branded booth and meeting room format – a key feature of the IPEM event design – will be used across the three tents referred to earlier. This will also be the location of the Venture Village. A series of dedicated meeting rooms will also be located on the second floor of the Westin.

Another important point for delegates to note is that they will also be able to smoothly schedule all of their meetings and networking opportunities using their IPEM Account, to maximize engagement.

“IPEM is fortunate to serve such a fast-growing, sophisticated industry. We’ve grown from 500 delegates at IPEM Cannes 2016 to close to 5,000 delegates. That growth is not something we can build alone. We’ve had huge support from across the industry,” concludes Colson.