Platinum Equity’s Louis Samson Discusses Key Industry Topics at Milken Global Conference 2026

Platinum Equity’s Co-President Louis Samson participated in two sessions at the recent Milken Global Conference held in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton and Waldorf Astoria.

One of the sessions was moderated by Capital Allocators host Ted Seides and was called Creating Long-Term Value: The Next Era of Private Equity.

The session covered:

• The private equity industry outlook
• The exit environment
• Creativity required to get deals done
• Valuations

Afterward, Samson reflected on the opportunity to exchange views with the group of industry leaders: Joe Baratta (Blackstone), Per Franzen (EQT), Eliza McDougall (White & Case) and Jonathan Sokoloff (Leonard Green).

“The Milken Global Conference is a unique gathering, and it was extremely valuable to participate in the sessions.” Samson said. “Ted Seides moderated one of them and got the group talking in a way only he can. We had a candid and spirited conversation that went to the heart of the issues the industry is facing.”

During an earlier public panel called The New Economics of Private Capital, Samson said that success in today’s exit environment requires creativity – not just running processes.

Samson pointed to Platinum Equity’s agreement to sell Urbaser — a global environmental services platform based in Spain — to Blackstone and EQT for $6.6 billion a few months after completing a unique cross-border refinancing with a portable feature as an example.

Announced recently, the transaction unfolded over nearly two years of dialogue. The deal demonstrates Platinum Equity’s ability to deal with current market complexities.

Samson also said today’s M&A environment favors firms that can build trust in processes.

Samson echoed concerns raised by another panelist, who said traditional financial engineering is not enough to succeed. Limited partners want differentiated sourcing, real value creation and managers who can navigate complexity, he added.

Samson graded today’s M&A environment a B-plus with activity concentrated in corporate carve-outs, which he noted is great for firms like Platinum who specialize in corporate divestitures, but because of a lack of sponsor‑owned assets is less robust than it could be. Still, Samson believes the market is likely to improve when geopolitical tensions ease, he believes transaction velocity will eventually accelerate with the pent‑up demand on both the buy- and sell sides.

Michael Milken founded the institute that bears his name in 1991 with the annual conference starting in 1998. The conference brings together leaders from the worlds of finance, technology, government, philanthropy, sports and health. Samson joined speakers such as BlackRock CEO Laurence Fink, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, NFL legend Tom Brady and many others.

This marks the fourth consecutive year that Platinum Equity has participated in the conference with Samson’s fellow co‑president, Jacob Kotzubei, representing the firm at the event in the past three years.