摘要：The worldwide growing momentum of private equity (PE) funds -- funds that mainly invest in unlistedshares -- has recently attracted attention among financial market participants, with inflows frominvestors into such funds surpassing the peak before the global financial crisis (GFC). The reasons forthe increase in inflows into PE funds include that domestic and foreign institutional investors haveintensified their search for yield and preference for investments generating relatively high returns amidthe prolonged low interest rate environment. On the back of these active inflows, investment activitiesby PE funds in firms are expanding globally, helping firms with the smooth procurement of funding.Nevertheless, if going forward PE funds increase their leverage to achieve higher returns, this maypose a risk to the financial system, thus warranting a monitoring of developments in PE funds.
