Private equity firms are skilled at buying companies, whipping them into shape and selling them on at a handsome profit. Managing the frictions among well-remunerated fund managers in their own dealmaking is a different game entirely. Earlier this month, BlackRock made a splashy deal to buy Global Infrastructure Partners for $12.5bn.  BlackRock isn’t a traditional private equity firm but it is certainly ambitious in its private capital aspirations. Its target is just one of a number of successful independent managers eyed by large money management complexes. More deals are expected as pensions and sovereign wealth funds increasingly favour one-stop shops. But for publicly traded capital managers considering such acquisitions, the tensions between fund investors, public shareholders and employees creates a high-wire act.

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