Mastering the challenges of private equity

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Merrick McKay (Abrdn): the advantages of investing in specialized Private Equity funds

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Mastering the challenges of private equity

Merrick McKay (Abrdn): the advantages of investing in specialized Private Equity funds

Published on

4/3/2024

Amended on

7/5/2026

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Portrait Merrick McKay

For Private Equity specialists Merrick McKay and Louis Flamand, investment in specialized funds is crucial to company growth. McKay stresses the difficulty for generalist funds to compete with this expertise. Flamand also discusses the European market's move towards sector specialization. They discuss the complexity of investing with over-demanded managers.

By

Damien Hélène

Damien Hélène

Merrick McKay (Abrdn): the advantages of investing in specialized Private Equity funds

Portrait Merrick McKay

This article has been automatically translated. Please excuse any inaccuracies or translation errors.

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For Merrick McKay, European Head of Private Equity at Abrdn, the choice of investing in specialist Private Equity funds is an obvious one: " they bring operational excellence to the growth of the companies in which they have invested. I think it's now very difficult for a generalist fund, even a very strong one, in a given region, to compete with this specialization. " A view shared by Louis Flamand, Chief Investment Officer ofAltaroc.

In an interview with Altaroc, he also looks back at the evolution of the European Private Equity market since the last financial crisis, which has seen many managers adopt, as in the US, a trend towards sector specialization.

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Merrick McKay also explains the complexities of investing with oversubscribed managers.

"Fortunately for us, we've been in the market for 25 years, having invested with professionals who are the best in the business. We have an allocation and we don't want to lose it."

VIDEO

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