The American Investment Council’s Year in Review

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Looking back on 2023, the American Investment Council continued to highlight how private investment supports small businesses, jobs, and retirements across America. This year alone, the AIC hosted events with members of Congress, launched a rapid response platform, published impactful research reports covered by prominent media outlets nationwide, served as the leading trade association for private credit, and spotlighted the success stories of small businesses and private equity investments across the country.
 
We also grew our membership to 115 firms – further strengthening the AIC to share the real-life impacts of private equity and private credit investments. Below are some key highlights of our work throughout 2023.

Engaged Directly with Policymakers

This year, we brought together elected officials from both sides of the aisle to speak at AIC sponsored events and Congressional hearings about how private equity is strengthening communities, supporting businesses, and bolstering retirement security in every state and Congressional district in the United States.

These events included:

• Hosting the second annual welcome reception at this year’s Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference (CBCF ALC) with Former Congressional Black Caucus Chair Joyce Beatty (D-OH)
• Executive conversations at Politico’s Health Care Summit
• Multiple Punchbowl News events with lawmakers including Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV) and Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas)

Launched Digital Campaign to Share the Private Equity Story

The AIC launched an ongoing digital campaign exhibiting how private equity investment supports tens of thousands of small businesses throughout the United States. This campaign included videos, displays, and educational resources aired on digital platforms nationwide.

Watch the full videos below:

• “The Common Factor”
• “Private Equity is Smaller Than You Think”

Released Research Highlighting Positive Impacts of Private Investment

The AIC continued to produce reports that inform policymaker and stakeholder audiences about the impact of private equity investments. Some of this year’s research included:

• Economic Contribution of Private Credit to the US Economy in 2022 – offering a detailed analysis of the economic contributions of the private credit industry, which includes its impact on job creation, wages, and broader economic activity.
• In-House Expertise: How private equity is modernizing consumer brands – highlighting private equity’s role investing more than $1 trillion in the last 10 years to support beloved consumer brands.
• Building Competition: How Buy-and-Build Helps the American Economy – exploring the industry’s buy-and-build model, which investors use to acquire several smaller companies to create a new, more competitive business.
• Top States & Districts in 2022 – which ranks the country’s top twenty states and Congressional districts by total private equity capital and the number of companies receiving investment in 2022. 
• The Critical Role Private Equity Plays in America’s Energy Transition – analyzing over a decade’s worth of private equity investment in renewable energy and clean technology.
• Economic Contribution of the US Private Equity Sector in 2022 – showcasing how the private equity industry and private equity-backed companies continue to be a major driver of job growth, high wages, and economic stability.

Advocated Against Harmful Policy Proposals

The AIC served as a key voice to oppose misguided policy proposals by federal lawmakers and regulators that target the private equity and private credit industry.

Examples of advocacy work from this year include:

• In February, AIC General Counsel Rebekah Goshorn Jurata, delivered a statement at a Federal Trade Commission Forum and expressed concerns that the broad drafting of the proposed rule on non-compete clauses that would harm competition by reducing incentives for long-term investment in developing businesses.
• In July, Drew Maloney, President and CEO of the AIC, released a statement in July warning that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ)’s proposals would dramatically increase the cost of preparing required notifications about proposed transactions and threaten to drag mergers that are clearly legal under existing law into protracted administrative review.
• In September, Drew announced that the AIC would join a lawsuit against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding the agency’s Private Fund Advisers final rulemaking which represented that a restructuring of the businesses arrangements of private funds is unlawful, unwarranted, and ultimately harmful to investors
• In November, AIC joined 30 other influential advocacy organizations representing thousands of businesses across sectors of the U.S. economy to oppose a proposed transformation of the FTC’s and DOJ’s premerger notification requirements under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (HSR Form).

Launched New Rapid Response Platform

In May, we launched a new project to share the most up-to-date facts and research about private equity and private credit. The project, called Private Investment Works, cuts through the noise to provide data, first-person testimonials, and resources about the real-life impacts of private equity and private credit investments.

Private InvestmentWorks featured:

• Blog posts highlighting private investment’s impact across industries and issue areas—including health care, energy, housing, small business, and pension funds.
• Fact sheets and real data providing readers with accurate information to make informed decisions about how private investment impacts their communities.
• Fact-checks of inaccurate claims and misinformation about the industry.
• Case studies highlighting the real-life impacts of private investment.

Appeared in Prominent National and In-state Media Outlets

The AIC highlighted the positive benefits of private investments in dozens of prominent national and in-state news outlets across the country. Below are just a few highlights.

• Drew Maloney penned an op-ed in the Financial Times on the FTC’s flawed regulatory agenda, which appeared in the Financial Times.
• AIC’s Emily Schillinger, Jamal Hagler, and Drew Maloney spoke with local media outlets across the country in November about how private equity is investing in neighborhood businesses and supporting small companies that families rely upon for gifts and their favorite holiday traditions.

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