BERLIN â€" David M. Rubenstein, the co-founder of the private equity firm Carlyle Group, said on Wednesday that he believed more private equity firms would seek to go public in the next few years.
Speaking at SuperReturn International, the private equity conference in Berlin, Mr. Rubenstein said that smaller private equity firms were likely to follow a wave of initial public offerings by larger firms in recent years.
Mr. Rubenstein said that the perceived level of assets under management that a firm should have before going public was likely to decline, opening the door to more offerings by midsize and smaller firms.
“I think you’ll see more and more of these firms go public,†Mr. Rubenstein said.
Carlyle, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, The Blackstone Group and Apollo Global Management have all publicly floated their stock in recent years despite concerns that firms might struggle to balance the conflicting expectations of so-called limited partners who invest with the firms and the shareholders who buy the firms’ stock.
On Tuesday, David Bonderman, the co-founder of TPG Capital, said that his firm was contemplating going public, but hadn’t committed to doing so.
