DETAILED OUTLINE
8.30am
REGISTRATION OPEN
Club Pavilion, RACV City Club Melbourne
9.00am
WELCOME
Tim Townsend
Partner & Private Wealth Adviser, Townsend Cobain Partners
James Weir
Director & Private Wealth Adviser, Steward Wealth
9.15am
ON THE GROUND
A Dealmaker's View of Private Equity in 2026
Private equity is attracting more attention than ever, yet much of the conversation focuses on headline returns rather than what’s happening inside the companies themselves. Meanwhile, the line between public and private markets is shifting, as more companies stay private for longer and some listed companies choose to go private.
In this fireside conversation, we get a practitioner’s view of the market, drawn from active dealmaking across Australia and Asia. We’ll discuss what management teams are saying about public versus private ownership, what’s separating the stronger performers from the rest, and what that means for investors with exposure to Australian companies.
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Key Issues:
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Private over Public – Why more companies are choosing private ownership, and what this means for the future of the ASX.
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Inside the Boardroom – What founders, CEOs and management teams are saying about growth, capital and the road ahead.
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Value Creation and Dispersion – What operational value creation looks like today, and why returns vary so widely between managers.
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The Australian Opportunity – What’s emerging in Australian deal flow, and how it compares with the wider region.
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THOUGHT LEADER:
​Alexander Roso
Managing Director, Warburg Pincus (Represented by Continental Funds Group)
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WORKSHOP EXCHANGE - Workshop Discussion
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Picking the Winners: With returns varying so widely, how do you choose a private equity manager?
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Scaling Up: What’s the biggest barrier to increasing your clients’ private markets exposure?
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Report Back – The Ideal Split: As a table, agree on the ideal split between listed and private companies in a typical client’s Australian equities allocation, and the main reason for your answer.​​
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10.15am
MORNING TEA
10.35am
THE OTHER PRIVATE CREDIT
Asset-Backed and Specialty Lending: Where Risk and Return Actually Come From
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Most private credit exposure in Australian client portfolios today is one of two things: commercial real estate lending, or corporate direct lending. While these sectors are reasonably well understood, the market is quickly evolving beyond this, with segments such as asset-backed and specialty lending building niches often in areas the banks have stepped back from.
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This session will explore the fundamentals driving this evolution – examining how these loans are originated and structured, where the return genuinely comes from, and how to assess whether the premium on offer provides genuine compensation for complexity and illiquidity.
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Key Issues:
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Beyond Property and Corporates – What asset-backed and specialty lending is, how it differs from the direct lending most portfolios already hold, and where banks have retreated.
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Where the Return Comes From – Origination, structuring, servicing and scale as return drivers, and why the yield is not simply a function of taking more credit risk.
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Where the Risk Actually Sits – Beyond borrower credit: collateral valuation, dependency on the servicer, correlation across a granular book, and leverage within the structure itself.
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When Things Go Wrong – Monitoring, arrears, workout and recovery, and how loss scenarios are planned for at portfolio construction.
THOUGHT LEADER:
Guy Kaufman
Managing Director, Head of Investments, MA Financial Group
IDEA EXCHANGE - Workshop Discussion
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Look Through Your Book: How much of your private credit exposure is really property or corporate lending, and is it as diversified as you thought?
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Portfolio Role: Is asset-backed lending a defensive income allocation, a growth allocation, or something else?
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Report Back - the Ideal Mix: As a table, agree on the ideal split of a typical client’s private credit allocation between real estate, corporate and asset-backed lending.
11.35am
BUYING SECOND-HAND
The Secondaries Market: Why It Exists, How Deals Get Done, and Whether Now Is the Time to Buy
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Secondaries have gone from a discreet corner of the market to an established part of the private equity ecosystem, with institutional investors increasingly able to rely on this growing segment to rebalance their private markets exposure.
This session looks at how the market works and where it currently sits. Our speaker will unpack how secondaries evolved and the structural need they serve, walk through what a transaction actually looks like — who sits on each side, how a portfolio of interests gets priced, and how LP-led and GP-led deals differ — and examine current conditions: transaction volumes, the capital available to buy, and whether sellers today are under pressure or acting opportunistically.
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Key Issues:
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Why the Market Has Grown – The structural and cyclical forces driving secondary volume.
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Anatomy of a Transaction –What a deal looks like in practice: LP-led sales and GP-led continuation vehicles, who sits on each side, and how a portfolio gets priced.
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Supply and Demand Today – Transaction volumes, capital available to deploy, and whether current sellers are forced or opportunistic.
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Discounts and Pricing: How assets are priced, and whether a discount is a genuine return driver.
THOUGHT LEADER:
John Lee
Partner, Lexington Partners (Represented by Franklin Templeton)
IDEA EXCHANGE - Workshop Discussion
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The Role of Secondaries: What role, if any, should secondaries play in a client’s portfolio?
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Managing Over Time: What challenges are you facing in managing your clients’ private equity allocations over time?
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Report Back – Build It From Scratch: As a table, agree on how you’d split a typical client’s private equity allocation between primary funds, secondaries and listed private equity.
12.35pm
LUNCH
1.40pm
GLOBAL BY DESIGN
Building a Private Credit Allocation Beyond Australian Shores
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Australian advisers have had ready access to domestic private debt for some years. Global private credit is a different proposition — a far larger and deeper opportunity set, but one raising questions about access, structure and how to assess managers operating in markets advisers cannot easily see.
Institutional investors have been allocating to global private credit for well over a decade. This session brings both perspectives together: where the opportunity currently sits across geographies and segments, who the capital is actually being lent to and on what terms, and how a large institutional allocator sizes, structures and monitors a private credit book. We'll then turn to what the adviser market can reasonably borrow from institutional practice — and where adviser portfolios hold advantages that institutions do not.
Key Issues:
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The Global Opportunity Set – Which geographies and segments look most attractive, and where spreads and structures have moved.
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The Institutional Lens – How large allocators size a private credit allocation, and what they monitor once invested.
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What Advisers Can Borrow – and Where They Differ – Which institutional practices translate to a client portfolio, and where adviser portfolios hold advantages institutions do not: smaller cheques, no peer benchmark, no obligation to deploy at scale.
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Who You're Lending To – Borrower quality, covenant protection and competition among lenders across the major markets.
THOUGHT LEADER:
Nehemiah Richardson
CEO, Pengana Credit
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IDEA EXCHANGE - Workshop Discussion
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The Cycle Question: Global private credit has grown enormously without being tested by a full default cycle. Does that change how much you’d allocate?
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Trusting What You Can’t See: What gives you confidence in a global private credit manager: track record, ratings, research houses or something else?
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Report Back – Domestic vs Global: As a table, agree on how you’d split a typical client’s private credit allocation between Australian and global exposure, and the main reason for your answer.
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2.30pm
POWERING THE DECADE
Private Infrastructure and the Constraints on the Digital Build-Out
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Infrastructure has moved from a quiet, income-oriented corner of the portfolio to the centre of the largest capital deployment story in a generation. The energy transition and the digital build-out together require capital at a scale public markets alone will not supply, and private infrastructure has become the primary vehicle for it.
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The interesting question is no longer whether the demand is real. It is whether the pipeline can physically be delivered. Power availability, grid connection queues, land, water, supply chains and skilled labour are binding constraints in every major market, and they are increasingly what determines which announced projects become operating assets. This session takes a global view: where capital is actually flowing, how returns are generated across the spectrum from core to value-add, what separates an announcement from an asset, and whether the strength of the demand narrative is already reflected in what investors are paying.
Key Issues:
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Where the Capital Is Going – Energy transition and digital infrastructure across major global markets, and the assets underpinning both.
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The Delivery Constraint – Power, grid connection, land and supply chains: what separates an announced project from an operating asset.
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Core to Value-Add – How risk and return differ across the infrastructure spectrum, and which end suits which client.
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Valuation & Crowding – Whether strong demand for infrastructure assets is compressing forward returns.
THOUGHT LEADERS:
Chloe Berry
Managing Partner, Infrastructure, Brookfield
Martin Langham
Senior Consultant, Frontier Advisors
IDEA EXCHANGE - Workshop Discussion
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Picks and Shovels: Most AI exposure sits in a handful of listed stocks. What role, if any, can private infrastructure play in broadening it?
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Build or Buy: Should managers take on construction and development risk, or stick to buying operating assets? Is it a return enhancer or an added risk?
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Report Back – Before You Invest: As a table, agree on the one question you’d ask an infrastructure manager before investing.
3.30pm
AFTERNOON TEA
3.45pm
FROM ALLOCATION TO IMPLEMENTATION
Sizing, Structuring and Managing a Private Markets Allocation
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Implementation is where private markets allocations succeed or fail. Advisers face a materially wider menu than they did three years ago (evergreen and closed-end structures, listed and unlisted vehicles, on-platform and off-platform access), alongside unresolved questions of sizing, liquidity budgeting, suitability and documentation.
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In private markets, implementation risk can matter as much as investment risk: the choice of vehicle, the size of the allocation and the management of liquidity all shape the client outcome. This closing session draws on the day’s discussions to establish practical takeaways. The focus now turns to what it takes to translate an allocation decision into a durable portfolio outcome: the investment frameworks, oversight and documentation that allow advisers to blend public and private markets with confidence.
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Key Issues:
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Sizing & Sequencing – How much is appropriate, how to phase commitments across managers and vintages, and what model portfolio structures allow as platform capability improves.
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Access & Structure – What is available and through which vehicles: evergreen, closed-end and blended, on-platform and off, and the trade-offs each carries.
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Liquidity Budgeting – Constructing an allocation that holds when client circumstances change.
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Blending Public and Private – How private allocations sit alongside listed exposure in a model portfolio, and what the combination changes about risk, correlation and rebalancing.
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THOUGHT LEADERS:
​Jonathan Ng
Partner, BNV Investment Partners
Andrew Yap
Head of Portfolio Solutions, Zenith Investment Partners
Tim Farrelly
Co-CIO, Delta Portfolios
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IDEA EXCHANGE - Workshop Discussion
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Access Route: Which funds, structures and platforms are you using to access private markets, and what drives those choices?
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Getting the Size Right: What’s an appropriate private markets allocation for a typical client, and how would you split it across asset classes?
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Report Back – Why Private Markets: As a table, agree on the main reason you include private markets in client portfolios.