Klinsky: New Study Supports Private Equity as Growth Engine
Today, RealClear Politics published an op-ed from New Mountain Capital Founder and CEO Steve Klinsky highlighting a recent report from EY and the American Investment Council (AIC) that shows private equity’s positive economic impact across America. Klinsky, who also serves as the Chairman of the AIC Board of Directors, highlights key findings from the study including how private equity supports the jobs of millions of hard working Americans:
“The U.S. private equity industry employed 8.8 million people in 2018, while suppliers to the PE companies employed 7.2 million more. The average private equity sector worker was paid $71,000 in wages and benefits in 2018; approximately $36 per hour for full-time workers, and about $600 billion in all.”
Klinksy goes on to discuss his experience building businesses and creating jobs at New Mountain Capital:
“I entered the PE field in 1981 as it was just beginning, and I have watched PE firms evolve to become more and more operational over the past 40 years. Top operating managers have increasingly left publicly traded companies (where they are forced to think in 90-day earnings periods) in order to join PE companies, where they can own and build businesses privately over multiple years. PE firms are now some of the best business building organizations anywhere: highly professional, with dozens or even hundreds of experts on staff, and able to repeat their success again and again.
As PE firms build businesses, great social track records naturally emerge. For example, my firm — New Mountain Capital — was founded in 1999 and has published a social dashboard every year since 2008. We have now added or created over 43,000 jobs at our PE holdings, net of any job losses. We pay far above the national average. We have spent over $4.6 billion on R&D, software and capital expenditures. We have generated $35 billion in gains for workers’ pension funds and other shareholders. We have paid billions of dollars in taxes. We have never had a PE company bankruptcy or missed an interest payment.”
Click here to read the full op-ed in RealClear Politics.
