Roger Altman: "Private equity is very creative"

The flow of private equity transactions obviously has slowed sharply, but we're just moving into a different chapter of private equity. This is a permanent, powerful sector of finance. And it's gone through many chapters since the modern era began in the late '70s. Now we're entering a new chapter. So there will be plenty of private equity transactions, but they'll be different types of deals. They'll be more conservatively capitalized and will involve a lot more equity rather than leverage. But they will proceed, probably at a slower pace for the time being. Private equity is very creative.

~ Roger Altman, chairman of the boutique investment and private equity firm Evercore Partners (EVR), "Roger Altman On the Pain Ahead and Election 2008," BusinessWeek, December 3, 2007