There are two important differences between investing in public equity and a private equity fund. First, funds are committed in the private investments and later drawn down as capital is utilized by portfolio companies. In a public firm, the commited capital is usally immediately deployed. What does exactley the first sentence mean " funds are committed in the private investments and later drawn down as capital is utilized by portfolio companies." Thank you!
PE firms have a level of maxmum capital (i.e. 500m) to invest. They would wait for the rigth opportunities to come along an invest. So in this hypothetical case, if the PE firm has used 300m in investments, then it still has an additional 200m available.