凯雷集团（The Carlyle Group）联合创始人大卫•鲁本斯坦认为，如今的私募股权行业要比大萧条之前更加繁荣。

    鲁本斯坦在柏林举行的超级回报国际会议（SuperReturn International）上演讲时表示，雷曼兄弟（Lehman Brothers）破产之后，私募股权曾面临多种严重的威胁，不仅筹资量和交易量出现了巨幅下滑，而且限制性监管法规的出台、私募股权公司的破产以及有限责任合伙人难以做出资本承诺的现象也会成为可能。

    鲁本斯坦说，虽然筹资和交易的特征有所改变，但是它们已在很大程度上得到了恢复。例如，越来越多的主权财富基金和个人投资者参与到了有限合伙人领域。如今，私募股权交易的股权承诺规模比以往更大。一些会议发言人认为，当前信贷市场的泡沫已回到了2006年或2007年的水平，他对此表示反对。

    他还说，大多数顾虑都没有变成现实。监管机构从来没有把私募股权看成是一种体系风险，而且私募股权行业的主要公司也都健在。只有少数有限合伙人出现了违约，而且基于私募股权的业务出现违约的现象要比基于非私募股权的业务少得多。

    鲁本斯坦说，私募股权这种已经得到证实的适应性让投资者对这个行业产生了更大的信心，也让私募股权基金和投资者的合作越来越紧密。基本上，熬过绝境的人会变得更加强大。

    鲁本斯坦总结说：“对于私募股权来说，最重要的事情在于，私募股权的回报超过了其他所有现有投资类别的回报，而且我认为这一局面仍将继续。”（财富中文网）

    David Rubeinstein, co-founder of The Carlyle Group (CG), believes that the private equity industry is stronger today than before the Great Recession.

    Speaking at the SuperReturn International conference in Berlin, Rubenstein argued that private equity faced several serious threats in the wake of the Lehman Brothers collapse. Not only massive decreases in fundraising and deal-making, but also the possibilities of debilitating regulation, PE firm collapses and limited partners failing to meet capital commitments.

    But both fundraising and deal-making have largely recovered, Rubenstein said, although the characteristics of each has shifted. The limited partner universe, for example, now includes much more participation from sovereign wealth funds and individual investors. Private equity deals now include larger equity commitments than in the past, and he rejected the argument of other conference speakers that credit markets are as frothy as they were back in 2006 or 2007.

    Most of those other concerns, he added, failed to materialize. Regulators never seemed to deem private equity to be a systemic risk, while none of the industry's major players went out of business. Only a small handful of LP defaults were reported, and defaults of PE-backed businesses came at a much lower rate than for non-PE-backed businesses.

    Such proven resiliency, Rubenstein said, has resulted in greater faith in private equity and better alignment between private equity funds and their investors. Basically, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

    "The most important thing about private equity is that private equity returns still outpace all other readily available investment classes, and I think that will continue," Rubenstein concluded.