Christian Sinding, CEO and Managing Partner of EQT: I've always been the ‘why not’ person

The seasoned private equity dealmaker joined Steffen Pauls, Moonfare’s Founder and CEO, in another edition of the Deal Talk interviews.

Christian Sinding is the CEO and Managing Partner of EQT, one of the largest private equity firms globally. With over 25 years of experience, Sinding has been instrumental in driving EQT's growth and expansion, focusing on sustainability and long-term value creation.

Today, the Swedish private markets heavyweight manages companies and assets worth more than €230 billion. It generated over €2 billion in revenue last year and employs almost 1,900 people across the world.

In a conversation with Steffen Pauls, Moonfare’s Founder and CEO, Sinding discusses a wide range of topics — from the opportunities in artificial intelligence to EQT’s culture and future plans.

Here’s a couple of highlights from their conversation:

Scandinavian curiosity and American mindset

“We Scandinavians like to think of ourselves as having big ears and a small mouth. We're pretty good at engaging with people and listening. You need to do that coming from a small country to engage with the world because your whole market is too small. And for me personally, I think that kind of curiosity that comes with that approach has helped me a lot. And then I think I’ve also brought with me the forward motion that the Americans have. So I am kind of a product of both worlds.”

Making businesses better

“We've never been financial engineers. We've never been the ones that have used the most leverage either in our portfolio companies or in the funds. We think you can generate consistent long-term returns by making companies better, stronger, faster, bigger, more international, more innovative and more sustainable.”

The big opportunities

“We are excited about the digitalisation of society which is now massively accelerating again with artificial intelligence. These opportunities include data centres, fibre broadband and everything else related to digitalisation. The energy transition is also huge — the energy systems as well as transportation. We own the largest ferry network in the world, which started in Norway. But it's not really about owning ferries, it's about decarbonising the entire ferry fleet, turning it into an electrical bridge that's quiet and environmentally neutral.”

The ‘why not’ attitude

“I've always been the ‘why not’ person. You get some kind of challenge or opportunity and you're not sure whether you want to do it or not? Just go for it. Could I have told you when I was in college that I was going to be the CEO of a big private equity firm? Of course not, not even close.”

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