World Economic Forum – Bridging the Divide, Nov 2024

The World Economic Forum's November 2024 white paper, "Bridging the Divide: Private Markets and New Drivers of Value Creation," explores how private markets can unlock value linked to sustainability and the energy transition. The report highlights the increasing appetite among limited partners (LPs) for energy transition funds and examines how general partners (GPs) leverage private markets' governance models and commercial excellence capabilities to support growth, realign business models, and capture sustainability premiums. Key focus areas include enhancing commercial and operational excellence, scaling sustainable products and services, building enabling infrastructure, and optimizing company exit positioning. The paper also discusses the critical role of private market investors in transforming companies and deploying traditional value creation levers, such as enhancing go-to-market strategies, pricing optimization, international expansion, operational efficiency improvements, and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) strategies to drive more sustainable growth and profitability. Through detailed LP and GP case studies, it showcases how private equity and infrastructure investors are implementing these strategies across their portfolios, ultimately helping to meet decarbonization goals and create a more sustainable future.