EQT Chair Says Geopolitics Is No. 1 Worry, Not Higher Rates

(Bloomberg) — EQT AB’s Chairman Conni Jonsson said the geopolitical tensions in the world right now are a much bigger concern for his business than the issue of higher borrowing costs. 
“The risks that I am most concerned about are the geopolitical risks,” Jonsson said during a fireside chat with Bloomberg News at the Swedish investment firm’s first US capital markets event in New York on Tuesday. 
Jonsson said it was easy to paint a “very negative geopolitical scenario” in which the whole logic for trade and international cooperation goes away. This, he said, would prove more of a challenge for the private equity industry that what it experienced through the Covid-19 pandemic or with higher interest rates. 
The potential for more regulatory scrutiny is also something the private equity industry needs to be mindful of, Jonsson said, especially when acting as a consolidator in certain industries. The EQT chairman said there were a lot of discussions about the issue of taking away competition as regulators do their job.
“Whenever we do these kinds of things, we should not sort of misuse the power we have,” Jonsson said.
EQT manages about €246 billion ($266 billion) in private capital and real assets, according to its website. Earlier this year, the firm raised €22 billion for its largest-ever private equity fund, exceeding its target in a challenging market for gathering new money.
Jonsson said EQT wasn’t looking in the short term to follow its listed peers by gathering up assets across multiple investment classes — a strategy that many big firms are pursuing as the seek to boost management fees and become one-stop shops for investors. 
“My conviction is that we, you should do what you what you think and are convinced that you’re good at,” Jonsson said. “If you’re not able to deliver something that is uniquely better than anybody else can deliver in doing so, it’s not a long term proposition.”
Bloomberg News reported in August that EQT was moving its Chief Financial Officer Kim Henriksson to New York amid a push to expand internationally and spur growth. Among the firm’s priorities are engaging more with US capital markets, people familiar with the matter said at the time.
Jonsson said the US market presented one of the biggest opportunities for the firm to grow. 
EQT’s dealmaking in the US in the last 12 months has included agreements to buy technology consultant Perficient Inc. for about $3 billion including debt, and medical device component manufacturer Zeus for roughly $3.4 billion including debt.
(Updates with Jonsson quotes on regulation from fourth paragraph.)
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