Private capital: only 15% women in top positions

"The analysis has highlighted how private capital needs to strengthen its organisational maturity in order to attract and retain talent, enhance the presence of women and guarantee structured growth paths," comments Laura Li Donni, partner at Legance, who concludes: "Diversity is a fact, inclusion an opportunity: I believe that transforming this opportunity into a concrete practice is a strategic element to generate value and drive fairer and more sustainable growth.

In the various policies and instruments taken into consideration, the report highlights a heterogeneous approach, often linked to the size and origin of the operator. Larger companies and those with a more structured investor base are more advanced in the adoption of diversity policies (present in 53% of international operators, compared to 38% overall), in the definition of targets to be reached (adopted in general by 15% of players and by 29% of foreign ones) and in reporting systems, both to investors and required from portfolio companies.

The same applies to initiatives dedicated to the topic of gender diversity, present in 41% of the cases (59% considering only international operators), to ad hoc training courses on the topic, which concern about one third of the analysed subjects (62% for foreign subjects), while for measures on the gender pay gap similar values are observed for all operators.

The analysis dedicated to the new generations of private capital in Italia returns the profile of a sector that continues to attract highly qualified young professionals who are strongly oriented towards professional growth. The sample of 119 young people under 35 shows first of all a solid economic-financial background, with a master's degree in 75% of cases and a postgraduate master/MBA in 23%. In 92% of cases, the chosen course of study is in economics, often with a focus on finance. The average age of entry into the sector is almost 26 years old and 3/4 of people enter after previous work experience, mainly in related fields, such as consultancy (32% of cases), M&A (20%), investment banking (14%) or a combination of these activities (26%).

"Once in, young professionals are involved in core investment activities such as due diligence, deal execution and portfolio management from an early stage, with a high level of operational exposure and responsibility that tends to increase with seniority," reads the study's presentation, which continues: "In the face of this, career paths are often poorly formalised: only 20% of respondents work in structures where timelines and advancement methods are clearly defined, while in most cases growth is conditioned by internal dynamics, strongly hierarchical structures and contexts in which personal relationships play a central role. Despite the limited formalisation of paths, advancement in terms of position tends to be relatively rapid, particularly in the first few years'.

In terms of remuneration, private capital remains a highly attractive sector. Fixed remuneration is already high in the early stages of a career and increases significantly as seniority advances. In addition to this, there is a variable component, present in 95% of cases, which has a significant impact on total annual remuneration and which is mainly influenced by the size of the manager one works for, rather than by seniority level. Looking at the total annual remuneration for the different seniority levels, the following average values are observed: investment analyst about 70,000 euro; investment associate about 105,000; investment manager about 125,000 and principal about 160,000.

Typically, salary levels are higher among international operators (around EUR 140,000) than among domestic operators (around EUR 95,000). On the other hand, no significant differences emerge between men and women, although a slight deviation emerges from the analysed sample.

Annual remuneration is flanked in two-thirds of cases by access to carried interest which, although introduced gradually and differentiated by role, represents a distinctive and strongly characterising element of the sector. Finally, benefits and welfare measures are widespread, with particular reference to meal vouchers/canteen service (87% of cases), health insurance (71%) and company welfare plans (57%).

Training is considered a central lever for professional growth: 85% of respondents rated it as of high or utmost importance, signalling a widespread need for structured refresher courses, especially on negotiation and legal issues, as well as networking initiatives.

Finally, with regard to work-life balance, the picture that emerges is complex: workloads are high. About 75% of the respondents say they work more than 50 hours per week and access to smartworking appears limited. In spite of this, overall satisfaction appears generally positive and a significant proportion of respondents, about three quarters of the sample, say they are certain to see themselves in private capital in the medium to long term.