In recent years, the escalation in private equity driven public to private transactions has captured the imagination of the business world. Against this backdrop, it was inevitable that the private equity industry would come to the attention of corporate regulators and give rise to new and controversial regulatory issues. Indeed, the high profile nature of private equity transactions and the somewhat novel character of the private equity business combined to bring greater focus to many legal issues that had previously been overlooked. This article explores some of the issues that arise in relation to the payment of carried interest to private equity fund managers, issues which became highly prominent in the United States, but which to date, have not been given substantive consideration in Australia.
