The weekly wrap: Audax, Conagra, Circor

Across lower middle-market private equity, fundraising momentum is increasingly colliding with the finite supply of founder-owned businesses available at attractive valuations.

The alternative asset industry's long-standing bargain — higher yields in exchange for opacity and illiquidity — is being dismantled piece by piece, and the firms moving fastest to replace it may define the next decade of the private market.

PE is rapidly pivoting from financial engineering to operational improvements to drive value.