Private markets remain attractive, even in a higher-rate world

Adecade ofKKR turbocharged a spectacular boom in private markets. As pension funds and other institutional investors hunted for yield after the global financial crisis of 2007-09, they ploughed money into private-markets firms, which in turn invested it across private equity, credit, property and infrastructure. The three biggest listed such firms—Apollo, Blackstone and —manage more than $2trn in assets between them, up from $187bn in 2008.Now, however, the Federal Reserve has at its fastest pace in four decades. The reversal has already caused turmoil in the banking industry; as we published this, the share price of First Republic, a lender based in California, had been bludgeoned. What does the new world hold for private markets?