Private equity investors want money back but it's tied up in zombie funds

Private equity firms are struggling to sell the companies they own — and that's locking investors' money in aging funds with no clear exit in sight. After years of booming deal activity following the global financial crisis of 2007-2009, the PE industry is now in a holding pattern. Managers are sitting on a growing number of unsold companies with delayed exits. PE firms typically sell their portfolio companies through various exit routes such as trade sales to strategic buyers, secondary sales to other PE firms, and public listings via initial public offerings, allowing them to return capital and profits to limited partners (LPs), who are private equity fund investors. A zombie fund is one of those funds that … might still have four or five companies they can't sell. So the fund is just ki