CFOs’ priorities in five charts

Chief financial officers at private equity firms are facing tremendous responsibilities as the latter’s assets under management continue to grow.

Capital raised in 2017 reached a record $640 billion in new commitments, according EY. The advisory firm said in its 2018 Global Private Equity Survey that CFOs are closely monitoring their operations and are largely focused on three broad categories: talent management, technology transformation and outsourcing.

“Investors’ demands for higher returns at lower fees, internal and external requests for more customized portfolio analysis, and dealing with increased regulatory and compliance demands have required CFOs to re-evaluate their finance functions to manage these increased demands,” the report reads. “In fact, the demands are only likely to intensify in coming years as the competition for private equity capital continues to grow.”

In the fourth quarter of last year, 110 CFOs at private equity firms were surveyed by telephone and online. About 9 percent of them were from firms with less than $1 billion of AUM; about 26 percent had AUM of $15 billion and greater.