EQT Capital Are Backing Fundamentals to Find Tomorrow's Real Winners

Why It Matters

EQT’s disciplined, innovation‑first strategy shows how private‑equity firms can deliver outsized returns and liquidity even when valuations and macro conditions are volatile, offering a blueprint for investors seeking resilient, long‑term growth.

Key Takeaways

• EQT targets four enduring sectors: healthcare, tech, services, industrial tech.
• Innovation, not volume, now drives value in healthcare investments.
• AI offers massive upside but requires disciplined, hands‑on transformation.
• Growth focus mitigates valuation uncertainty; 20% growth offsets multiple errors.
• EQT’s IPO expertise delivers liquidity even in volatile market conditions.

Summary

EQT Capital’s Bert Yansen explained the firm’s end‑to‑end private‑capital platform and its thematic focus on four long‑term sectors – healthcare, technology, services and industrial‑tech – as it seeks the next generation of market winners.

The firm stresses that investment theses now hinge on innovation rather than pure scale. In healthcare, EQT moved from volume‑driven models to solutions that lower system costs and drive R&D, exemplified by the overhaul of a Nestlé‑owned skincare business. Across all sectors, AI is viewed as a transformative lever, but Yansen warned that only disciplined, technology‑enabled value creation will capture its upside.

EQT’s track record includes a recent IPO that returned €9 billion to investors, underscoring its deep IPO capability. Yansen highlighted that growth rates protect against valuation mis‑pricing – a 20% growth rate can absorb a 20% multiple error – and that senior partners personally steer exits to ensure optimal outcomes.

For limited partners and portfolio companies, EQT’s playbook signals that focusing on enduring demand trends, embedding AI, and maintaining hands‑on exit discipline are essential to generate alpha amid macro‑uncertainty, supply‑chain reshoring, and energy‑security concerns.

Original Description

Bert Janssens, EQT Co-Head of Private Capital EU & NA, believes we're living in unprecedented times.

"This is probably the most interesting time to be alive. The opportunity for value creation with AI is enormous, but you've got to get it right."

While investors of all stripes are grappling with the impacts of AI and technological change, for private equity funds the challenge is even more pronounced.

How do you find and evaluate the companies that will succeed 5-10 years from now when it's increasingly difficult to know what the world will look like a mere six months in the future?

For EQT Capital and Janssens, it's about embracing the opportunity AI provides and using that to your advantage.