Public Binge Predicted for Private Equity

Private equity giant Carlyle Group will likely go public within five years, its co-founder said at a conference yesterday. David Rubenstein predicted a sea-change for the industry, as fund founders cash out before they retire, the FT reports.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if all the major firms were public four or five years from now," Rubenstein said. But there were naysayers, the Times of London notes. "When you're public, people don't feel you lost their money but that you stole their money," Leon Black, founder of Apollo Group, told the conference. "Who needs it?" (More private equity stories.)