The election of Donald Trump as US president has thrown private equity into a thicket of uncertainty, but the industry could emerge from it with a valuable prize.

Trump's victory in the presidential election is an earthquake for financial regulation, as for so many other sectors of US business, and threatens several key priorities for the industry. On the campaign trail, Trump attacked the treatment of carried-interest tax and proposed to eliminate the deductibility of corporate debt payments, two tax issues the industry has lobbied hard to protect.