Private-Equity Classic Might Still Have Fizz

Big private-equity firms have outgrown that label, but investors can now buy something closer to a purebred.

TPG is the latest firm with roots in private equity to list its shares—they began trading on Thursday. It will be something of a unique play among publicly traded alternative-investment managers, as they are now often known, in that it is still largely in the private-equity business. Roughly 80% of its assets under management are in private-equity strategies, which is high among large publicly traded peers, according to figures compiled by Autonomous Research analyst Patrick Davitt. Firms such as Apollo Global Management, Blackstone, Carlyle Group and KKR & Co. these days have relatively more exposure to other alternative assets such as credit and real estate.