The once-booming $1.4 trillion hedge fund industry faces its toughest challenge ever, in the form of record poor performance last year and heavy client outflows. 
 
And the $2.5 trillion private equity industry is licking its wounds after a year in which it made headlines more for bankrupt portfolio companies and collapsed deals than for the kind of mega-takeovers it was famous for just two years ago. Adding insult to injury, many investors are looking for ways to dump their once-coveted investments in private equity firms as they look to shed risk and the industry’s tax treatment is in the sights of the Obama administration.
 
There are deep-seated concerns over the health of the industry and the leveraged buyout model itself. With high levels of debt now pushing many private equity-owned companies into breach of their banking covenants, how many portfolio companies will fail and how many of their private equity backers will vanish?

 
Speakers at the Reuters Private Equity and Hedge Funds Summit taking place in New York, London and Hong Kong will address these questions, and discuss who will be the winners and losers out of the crisis, how much worse conditions will get and how much further the industry could shrink. Regulation, a widely-debated topic in both the U.S. and Europe, will also be a key discussion point.
The Summit will generate exclusive interviews and articles, as well as regular blog postings and online video.