????私募股權行業(yè)花了近10年投資很多企業(yè)，但賣出的并不太多。大家或許聽到過并購市場如火如荼的盛況，但私募股權的退出速度猶如蝸牛一般。

????隨著有限合伙人要求退出，現在是時候收割這些投資組合了。但不是所有的出售都能給有限合伙人帶來他們預期的結果。

????首先，讓我們來看看這些年來積累下來的投資組合規(guī)模。下表列出了目前私募股權基金持有的約7,500家美國公司的投資年份。超過50%的公司已經獲私募股權基金持有至少6年，超過10年的也不少。

????The private equity industry has spent almost 10 years buying companies but not too much selling. You may be reading about the robust M&A environment, but in private equity, the exit market is running at a snail's pace.

????It's time to harvest the portfolio, as limited partners demand exits. But not all sales will give limited partners the results they expect.

????First, let's look at the size of the pile that has built up over the years. The table below shows the vintage of the roughly 7,500 U.S. companies currently owned by private equity funds. Over 50% of these companies have been sitting in funds for at least six years, with many well over 10 years.

????這些公司將需要找到新的投資者。但這么大的規(guī)模怎么才能消化得了？

????公開上市

????目前在紐約證交所上市的公司約有2,300家，在納斯達克證交所上市的公司約2,700家，因此“真正”公開上市的公司總計約5,000家。而目前，私募股權基金持有的公司超過7,500家。在IPO好的年份，一年也只有幾百宗IPO定價。其中，私募支持的公司或許能占到1/3。就算未來幾年IPO猛增（從今年第一季度的一些跡象看，這種情況不無可能），也不能緩解多少壓力。

????或許有人會舉出在倫敦、溫哥華、甚至澳大利亞等其他交易所上市。以前也有這樣的例子。但這些市場的流動性依然不足以消化這樣的體量。

????尋找戰(zhàn)略投資者

????私募股權基金退出時，一個重要的下家群體就是企業(yè)買家。但企業(yè)集團對收購如饑似渴的時代已經結束。大型上市公司通過幾百宗收購來積累市場份額、拓展新業(yè)務領域的做法已經基本成為明日黃花，或者至少已經大不如前。

????各家企業(yè)已經變得節(jié)制起來。事實上，對于大型上市公司而言，出售資產的可能性已經超出了收購資產。而且，企業(yè)買家們也越來越不喜歡參與大范圍競價。如果你打算通過一個大規(guī)模流程來退出私募支持公司，你基本上可以放棄這種想法了。

????進入二級市場

????再者，是“二級”市場。不要與一只基金賣給另一只基金的“二次收購”混淆。二級基金市場是私募股權行業(yè)的又一個層級：基金折價收購其他基金的部分或全部頭寸。這些收購可為原有的有限合伙人提供現金，同時為投資組合中的其余公司重新設定時間，留出更多一些時間來實現全面的流動性。

????These companies will need to find new owners. But how is this pile going to be dismantled?

????Go public

????There are about 2,300 companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange and about 2,700 listed on the Nasdaq exchange, giving us a total of around 5,000 "real" public companies. There are currently over 7,500 private equity-owned companies sitting inside funds. In a good year, there are a couple hundred IPO pricings. Private equity-owned companies might make up a third of those in any given year. Even if the IPO spigot gushes for the next few years -- and there were some indications in the first quarter of this year that this might be the case -- it won't relieve much of the pressure.

????Some may make a case for alternative exchange listings in locations like London or Vancouver, or maybe even Australia. We have heard this before. There isn't enough liquidity in those markets to handle the volume.

????Go strategic

????Corporate buyers will always be a great source of exits for the private equity world. But the days of the acquisition-hungry conglomerate are over. The big public companies chasing hundreds of acquisitions to build market share and enter new categories have largely gone away or have at least slowed down.

????Corporations have become disciplined. In fact, it is more likely that big public companies will be shedding assets rather than buying them. And increasingly, corporate buyers hate participating in broad auctions, so if you are planning to run a big process to exit your private equity-owned company, you can pretty much count them out.

????Go secondary

????Then there is the "secondary" market. Not to be confused with secondary buyouts, where one fund sells to another fund, the secondary fund market is another class in the private equity industry with funds buying pieces of or whole positions of other funds at discounted values These purchases provide existing limited partners with cash and reset the clock on the remaining companies in a portfolio, giving them a little more time to achieve full liquidity down the road.