European private equity is narrowing on three fronts at once: capital is flowing to fewer managers, liquidity is coming from fewer exits, and returns depend on fewer levers. For LPs and GPs, the test is no longer access to a buoyant market but the ability to return cash.

Adam Dean, Vice President and Portfolio Manager at CMLS Asset Management, discusses the evolving opportunity in Canadian real estate debt, the importance of institutional underwriting and why disciplined capital deployment matters most when markets become uncertain.

A business can be worth more than a lender can actually realise. As delayed exits, refinancing constraints and redemption pressures stretch repayment timelines, they are testing a central assumption of private credit: that capital can stay invested until borrowers repay and value is turned into cash.