Last year, former Morgan Stanley chairman Sir David Walker issued a report that put greater onus on private equity funds in Britain to provide more details of the financial performance of companies they take over. Sir David's review was triggered by increasing criticism of the private equity industry. It's been accused of a secretive, asset-stripping approach to management that has resulted in thousands of job cuts in recent years.

The new rules, however, ducked the issue of what profits private equity makes from financial engineering, multiple expansion and operational improvements. Instead, these figures will only be produced for the industry as a whole. Sir David also gave private equity-owned companies longer to publish accounts. The new code also gives private equity firms the option of whether to produce an annual report or simply keep their website up-to-date.

At the time the report came out, Sir David was accused of avoiding the issue and not making hard decisions.

London Business School accounting professor Christopher Higson makes that point and more in his paper The privacy of private equity.

The paper raises a number of issues relevant to private equity worldwide. In particular, he looks at disclosure as a matter of public interest.

"There is a fundamental confusion by Walker, and more broadly, between the shareholders' right to run the business and other constituencies' right to be informed about it. Disclosure and transparency about economic performance is at the heart of the pact between business and society in a shareholder-capitalism market economy. It is also an essential Lubricant of competition ... The concerns that private equity raise about privacy apply with equal or greater force to other forms of private acquisition: by sovereign wealth funds, private individuals and families, and other corporate acquirers. Critics talk about companies 'going dark' after private equity acquisition. Unless we understand the importance of transparency and disclosure, and unless there is the political will to protect it, more and more business activity will pass into shadow."