Updated with correction
Private equity managers are more likely to sell than buy in 2015.
This should give investors more cash in their pockets from the expected distributions from these sales. These distributions of capital will help keep private equity's internal rates of return up.
But there is a hitch. Investors also will need to reinvest the money, which could be an issue in a world with fewer well-priced investments to be made, industry insiders say.
“Returns should be strong. It's more of a sellers' market than a buyers' market,” said Anthony J. de Nicola, co-president of New York private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe.
The firm distributed a record $5.5 billion in the past 18 months with $3.5 billion in distributions to investors in the past 12 months. And Mr. De Nicola expects to continue selling assets in 2015.
“The challenge will be for new capital to be deployed and generate returns for that new capital,” Mr. de Nicola said.