The Hidden Masters Of The Universe

You've heard of bankers. You're perhaps vaguely aware of hedge funds. But private equity? Maybe not. Yet private equity is all around you - from health clinics and supermarkets, to football clubs and the music industry. It might well be housing your granny. Who are these hidden masters of the universe?

Private equity describes wealthy investors pooling their money to buy and manage companies that are not listed on, or that they remove from, the public stock markets. To advocates, private equity means better run companies, higher profits and more jobs. To detractors, it's deplorable secret asset stripping that makes fortunes for the financiers, but which often leads to mass sackings, excessive debt, hollowed out companies and, ultimately, corporate collapse.

In this documentary, Ben Chu, economics editor of BBC Newsnight, will introduce you to a burgeoning - but also, by turns, glamorous, mysterious and controversial - hub of 21st century capitalism. One that, whether you know it yet or not, is shaping the world around us.

With contributions from:

Adrian Axtell, of the Community Union

Ludovic Phalippou, professor of Financial Economics at Sad Business School

Jon Moulton, founder of the private equity firm Better Capital

Steven Kaplan, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Dan Rasmussen, former associate at the private equity firm Brain Capital, and founder of the hedge fund Verdad Advisers

Christine Corlet Walker, research fellow at the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity, University of Surrey

Terry Wright, healthcare worker at a UK care home

Presenter: Ben Chu

Producer: Anouk Millet

Editor: Craig Templeton Smith

A Tempo & Talker production for BBC Radio 4

Ben Chu pulls back the curtain on private equity.