The recent successful showing for many initial public offerings (IPOs) is largely buoyed by strong equity markets. But the results also reflect smaller tranches, along with longer-term operational improvements in the portfolio companies by private equity (PE) issuers, which have been spending far more resources on management improvements than in the past, say experts at Wharton and EY. In Part I of this two-part Knowledge at Wharton podcast, Stephen M. Sammut, a senior fellow and lecturer at Wharton, and Michael Rogers, EY’s global deputy private equity leader, discuss these ideas. They also look at PE growth in Africa, a trend by limited partners to place more money in larger PE funds, rising demands for fee breaks and the lift in fundraising coming from pension funds.