Why Public Conglomerates Are Outperforming Private Equity
In this clip, Roland Austrup discusses research from an upcoming white paper comparing modern public operating conglomerates to private equity performance. Companies like Danaher, Constellation Software, Brookfield, Roper, and Berkshire Hathaway have demonstrated that public markets can deliver strong long-term returns while maintaining operational flexibility.
Roland explains why some companies may actually face more constraints under private ownership than in public markets, where capital access and broader investor participation can create stronger alignment and long-term growth opportunities.
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Michael J. Blankenship is a licensed attorney and is a partner at Winston & Strawn LLP. Joshua Wilson is a licensed Florida real estate broker and holds FINRA Series 79 and Series 63 licensure. The content of this podcast is intended for informational and educational purposes only and should not be interpreted as legal, financial, or compliance advice. The views and opinions expressed by the hosts and guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the official policies or positions of any regulatory agency, law firm, employer, or organization.
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Roland Austrup: I've got a white paper that I'm working on which compares, private equity to public markets. So I'm not gonna go into great detail on it, but I'll characterize the main themes that we're seeing there right now.
We did a study of, what I would call modern operating conglomerates because a venture isn't operating conglomerate, but what we do under the hood is different than what Danaher Constellation or Brookfield or Roper or Berkshire do. But you can classify a number of companies as modern, operating conglomerates and what we've noticed or public conglomerates, what we've noticed is that the performance of those companies actually outperforms private equity indices. So the thesis that, one of the thesis of our, the paper writing is that there, there's, and this is not to take anything away from private equity or venture, but.
A lot of companies decided not to go public because they didn't really want to have the cost of being a public company or the regulatory burden of being a public company. They thought they'd have more freedom by being funded privately. I would argue that's not the case. If you have if you're not democratized with public market investors, you have very few people that can control you and if you don't perform.
They have certainly more controls on your business than, a broader a public market investor base would have. So I think a lot of the, a lot of operating companies are realizing that. They have more handcuffs being private than if they're public.
Chief Growth Officer
Roland Austrup serves as Chief Growth Officer and member of the Executive Committee at Innventure (NASDAQ:INV), an Industrial Growth Conglomerate that creates and operates standalone companies from breakthrough technology solutions sourced from multinational corporations.
Since joining Innventure's leadership in 2021, Roland has held multiple strategic roles — Chief Financial Officer (2021–2023), Head of Capital Markets and Executive Committee Member (2023), and Chief Growth Officer (appointed June 2024) — bringing decades of financial and capital markets expertise to the company's systematic approach to technology commercialization. He helped lead Innventure's NASDAQ listing in October 2024.
Roland's career began as a Commodities Broker at ScotiaMcLeod Inc., where he specialized in hedging commodity price risk for corporate clients, followed by a role as Investment Advisor with BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. In 2003, he co-founded WaveFront Global Asset Management Corp., a Toronto-based global hedge fund company with $1.7 billion in assets under management, where he continues to serve as Chairman & Managing Principal. Previously, he served as WaveFront's President and CEO before transitioning to Managing Principal in 2019. WaveFront focuses on quantitative equity, futures, and multi-alternative strategies.
Roland played a central role in Innventure's evolution from a project-based developer into a publicly traded industrial operating conglomerate that systematically commercializes breakthrough technology solutions sour…Read More