Latest news with #SuperReturn
Business Wire
16-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
SuperInvestor Rebrands as SuperReturn Europe, Reflecting Core Focus on European Private Markets
LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SuperInvestor, the annual gathering for private equity and venture capital professionals, has announced that it is rebranding to SuperReturn Europe ahead of its 25th edition. The new name reflects the event's strong European focus and evolving role as the continent's leading platform for LPs, GPs, and global investment leaders. SuperReturn Europe is a cornerstone in the private capital calendar, with 85% of its audience consistently drawn from across Europe. The event will continue to serve as the must-attend meeting place for key stakeholders from the region and beyond looking to unlock insights, forge connections, and explore opportunities within European private markets. Dorothy Kelso, Managing Director of SuperReturn, said: 'As the conference celebrates a quarter of a century at the heart of Europe's private capital industry, it feels like the right moment to evolve our identity to reflect what this event has become. SuperReturn Europe is the hub for European private markets, delivering 500+ LPs and 750+ GPs – 80% of them at C-suite/Partner/Director level – who undertake in excess of 45,000 meetings across the 4 days of the conference. Furthermore, we know that the timing of the event in Q4 is valuable for GPs who are looking to close their funds by the end of the year or soft-launch funds they will be raising next year. While the event maintains its global reach, with attendees from over 50 countries, the new identity affirms our commitment to the region and to addressing the trends, innovations, and opportunities that matter most to Europe-focused LPs and GPs.' SuperReturn Europe 2025 will address the most pressing themes shaping the continent's private capital ecosystem, including: Why is the lower mid-market a new hotspot for investment in Europe? How are co-investments reshaping the market? What factors are driving the rise of evergreen funds in private credit? How has the need for liquidity driven growth across the European secondaries market? How big is the private wealth opportunity? As private wealth continues to grow as a key source of capital, SuperReturn is scaling its coverage of this capital source. Co-located with the main event, SuperReturn Family Office Europe will deliver an in-depth focus on the distinctive opportunities and challenges facing family office investors in European private markets. The newly renamed SuperReturn Europe will take place at the Hotel Okura, Amsterdam, from 4–7 November 2025. Attendees — whether long-time supporters or first-time delegates — can expect the same market-leading content, unparalleled networking, and strategic insights that have defined the event for the past 25 years. For more information and to reserve your place visit the SuperReturn Europe website. About SuperReturn Europe SuperReturn Europe is the largest networking event for private capital leaders focused on Europe and part of the SuperReturn series of leading private equity events which take place across the world. The four-day conference will bring together more than 1,500 of the industry's leading professionals from across the world to network and discuss current trends and the growing opportunities in Europe's private markets.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Investment CEO Tells Convention Audience That 60 Percent of Them Will Be Unemployed Next Year Due to AI
Although hundreds of billions of dollars have been poured into AI development, nearly 75 percent of businesses have failed to deliver the return on investment promised to them. The hyped up tech is notoriously buggy and in some ways now actually getting worse, with project failure rates on the rise. Despite staring into the maw of a colossal money pit, tech CEOs are doubling down, announcing plans to increase spending on AI development, going as far as laying off armies of workers to cut down on expenditures. And while some investors footing the bill for big tech's AI bacchanalia are starting to wonder when they'll see cash start trickling back into their pockets, private equity billionaire Robert Smith isn't one of them. Speaking at the SuperReturn conference in Berlin last week, Smith told a crowd of 5,500 of his fellow ultrarich investors that at least 60 percent of them would be out on the street within a year thanks to the power of AI. "We think that next year, 40 percent of the people at this conference will have an AI agent and the remaining 60 percent will be looking for work," Smith lectured. "There are 1 billion knowledge workers on the planet today and all of those jobs will change. I'm not saying they'll all go away, but they will all change." "You will have hyperproductive people in organizations, and you will have people who will need to find other things to do," the investor ominously intoned. Smith was speaking primarily about "AI agents," a vague sales term that mostly seems to mean "large language model that can complete tasks on its own." For example, OpenAI rolled out a research "Operator" that was supposed to help compile research from all over the web into detailed analytical reports earlier this year. There's only one issue with the billionaire's prediction — AI agents so far remain absolutely awful at doing all but the simplest tasks, and there's little indication the industry is about to rapidly revolutionize their potential anytime soon. (OpenAI's Operator is no exception, often conflating internet rumor with scholarly fact.) Meanwhile in the real world, a growing number of businesses that rushed to replace workers with AI agents, like the financial startup Klarna, have now come to regret their decision as it largely blows up in their faces. It doesn't take an AI agent to scrape together another explanation for Smith's absurd claim. His private equity fund, Vista Equity Partners, is among the largest in the world. Dealing almost exclusively in software and tech, Smith has a cozy relationship with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and just raised $20 billion for AI spending — its largest fund to date. Now responsible for billions of dollars in investments that are tied down to a disappointing AI industry, it's really just a matter of time for Smith before his claims either pay out — or the chickens come home to roost. More on AI: Therapy Chatbot Tells Recovering Addict to Have a Little Meth as a Treat Sign in to access your portfolio
Bloomberg
12-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
The SuperReturn Scene: Sporty Spice, Dry Powder and Europe LBOs
Hallo! It's Swetha Gopinath in Berlin, where I've spent nearly a week meeting some of private capital's biggest names at the SuperReturn shindig. Elsewhere, Circle has a splashy IPO debut and Stonepeak eyes an infra deal in Malaysia. Today's top stories
CNBC
12-06-2025
- Business
- CNBC
U.S. uncertainty is handing Europe a huge opportunity
Europe is being urged to capitalize on the volatility of the Trump administration, as shifts in capital and private market flows suggest U.S. exceptionalism is waning and losing out to a resurgent Europe. The numbers tell part of the story, with Europe's Stoxx 600 up over 8% compared to a 5% jump for the S&P 500 since Nov. 1, 2024, just days ahead of the U.S. election. Bank of America said in a report dated June 5 that U.S. equities had seen outflows of $7.5 billion over the previous three weeks, while European stocks benefited from inflows of $2.6 billion over the same period. Earlier this year, meanwhile, data from Morningstar showed that investors withdrew 2.8 billion euros ($3.2 billion) from U.S. equity ETFs in the month to the middle of March, while shifting 14.6 billion euros into European ETFs. Goldman Sachs International Co-CEO Anthony Gutman told CNBC that the convergence in U.S. and European growth rates came about quickly this year and was a big factor prompting investors to shift money toward Europe. "In January, sentiment felt very strong in the U.S., it felt somewhat more muted in Europe. You roll the clock forward and now the picture has changed fairly dramatically, that's to the benefit of Europe in many cases. Europe is getting more capital inflows and there is more optimism in Europe," Gutman told CNBC's Annette Weisbach Wednesday on the sidelines of the Goldman Sachs European Financials Conference in Berlin. Meanwhile, in private markets, talk of the breakdown of U.S. exceptionalism dominated the Super Return forum in Berlin last week. Carlyle Group's Managing Director Mark Jenkins told CNBC that, "in Europe, we've seen a lot of great opportunity and think we can pick up greater returns here relative to the risk you're taking in the U.S." This sentiment was echoed by private equity giant Permira, which holds private equity funds and credit vehicles representing around 60 billion euros worth of capital under management. "If you look at Europe at the moment, firstly, capital is cheaper, if you look at the trend of where euro rates are going versus dollar rates are going, you can fund and finance things cheaper here. Secondly, valuations are cheaper, you can buy great companies for less," Permira Executive Chairman Kurt Björklund told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Tuesday. "Thirdly the innovation cycle is growing exponentially in Europe … there is an enormous number of highly innovative companies that are growing in a disruptive and global way," he added. All eyes are now on the potential for an EU-U.S. trade deal — which is proving trickier to pin down than with some other countries, including the U.K. Referencing the complexity of the behemoth that is the European Union, Siemens Energy Chairman Joe Kaeser told CNBC that the EU is "politically not ready to strike these types of deals." The White House hinted on Wednesday that a July 9 deadline for a deal may be movable, however, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent saying: "It is highly likely that for those countries that are negotiating — or trading blocs, in the case of the EU — who are negotiating in good faith, we will roll the date forward to continue the good faith negotiation." French President Emmanuel Macron also struck an optimistic tone, telling CNBC's Karen Tso on Wednesday: "I'm sure that we will find, at the end of the day, a good solution." Unicredit CEO Andrea Orcel stressed that the opportunity for Europe's continued revival lies in its own hands, however. He explained that the 27-member European Union could galvanize amid the fracturing of Europe's relationship with the U.S., but warned that investors can also be fickle. The expectation is that "there will be convergence, there will be a banking union, there will be a capital markets union. There will be a lot of spend on infrastructure, on defense... That's exciting for the market, therefore money flowing in," Orcel told CNBC Wednesday. "But if, little by little, investors realize that this is lip service, but it doesn't really happen. Money will flow back in a nanosecond, and you will see [that] very quickly." Europe is faced with a "phenomenal opportunity," he added. "We have every reason to be ... on par with the U.S., but it's our fault if we don't do it."
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Blackstone's $500 Billion Power Play: Why Europe Could Be the Next Big Investing Frontier
Blackstone (NYSE:BX) is gearing up for a decade-long, $500 billion investment spree across Europea bold signal that the world's largest alternative asset manager sees the continent's shifting economic backdrop as fertile ground for long-term bets. CEO Steve Schwarzman, speaking with Bloomberg, said Europe is starting to embrace pro-growth reforms, which could unlock a wave of new opportunities. That optimism isn't isolated. At last week's SuperReturn conference in Berlin, heavyweights like Permira, BC Partners, and Brookfield also pointed to Europe as a market worth leaning into, especially with dealmaking elsewhere under pressure. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Signs with BX. Blackstone's timing might be strategic. The firm already manages $100 billion in UK investments and holds a commanding position in European real estate, including one of its most profitable calls ever: a concentrated bet on urban warehouses. Its London officeonce the firm's only outpost outside New Yorknow houses 650 employees and is set to move into a new building in Mayfair. One of its newer projects, a data center site in Northern England, could become the largest of its kind in Europe. Schwarzman also credited the UK government for being really focused on making big-ticket investments easier to executea key signal for peers monitoring regulatory risk. But Blackstone isn't stopping at Europe. The firm is also starting to see the Middle East as more than just a capital source. Cities like Riyadh and Dubai, fast becoming global business hubs, are now being eyed as active investment destinations. Schwarzman pointed out that the pace of development in the region is reshaping the opportunity set. In a world where global capital is getting choosier, Blackstone's pivot toward new geographies may be less about chasing yieldand more about being early in the next wave of structural transformation. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
