(Bloomberg) -- The movie-star haven of Beverly Hills is giving way to the luminaries of finance.

The Milken Institute Global Conference, the Davos of the West to the cognoscenti, is kicking off in California Sunday with one of its most high-profile list of speakers in years. Issues as vast as artificial intelligence and conflict in the Middle East are on the agenda.

Elon Musk will take time from contending with mounting challenges at Tesla Inc. to be interviewed by host Michael Milken, the 1980s-era junk bond king turned philanthropist. 

For Wall Street, however, angst about the prospect of higher-for-longer rates, an M&A slowdown from its 2021 peak and the prospects for a revival in dealmaking are top of mind. Carlyle Group Chief Executive Officer Harvey Schwartz arrives with expectations for increased deal activity.

“Capital from the banking system and private credit is more readily available,” Schwartz said on a May 1 earnings call. “These are clear improvements from this time last year, which is driving increased investor confidence, and if sentiment continues to improve, we expect a higher level of deal activity.”

Among the finance leaders joining Schwartz as participants will be Citadel’s Ken Griffin, Citigroup Inc. CEO Jane Fraser and Wells Fargo & Co.’s Charles Scharf. Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman will also address attendees, at an invite-only discussion on the diversity, equity and inclusion movement, following his public campaign against such programs at companies and universities.

Rates Watch

Notable for Wall Street will be New York Federal Reserve President John Williams speaking in an interview just days after central bankers signaled they are unlikely to raise interest rates, though they are prepared to keep their benchmark elevated depending on economic trends.

Dealmaking has been in the doldrums as investors await Fed rate cuts. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that gaining confidence on inflation will “take longer than previously expected.” 

Knock-on effects are spreading across industries, including companies grappling with high debt levels from the earlier era of low interest rates. Distress is still winding its way through the real estate lending market. 

While the US economy has remained strong overall, mergers and acquisitions volume has suffered. That’s left private equity firms struggling to exit investments and return money to investors.

Disagreement over valuations and higher debt costs have depressed the number of leveraged buyouts, where a sponsor acquires a business by loading it up with debt. The initial public offering market has also been anemic for sponsor-backed companies.

At the Milken conference, leaders in the space including Hellman & Friedman CEO Patrick Healy and Blackstone Inc.’s global head of private equity, Joe Baratta, will be discussing these themes in panels such as “The Promise and Pitfalls of Private Equity.”

Investors like pension funds and insurance companies are beginning to lose patience, and these so-called limited partners are weighing how much to shift allocations between public and private markets. 

The lack of new deals has also left both private equity and private credit firms sitting on billions of dollars of dry powder, with a growing pressure to deploy.

While such market concerns are a constant for Wall Street professionals, the more than 4,500 attendees at the 27th annual Milken conference can experience just how far the event has expanded beyond its origins.

No Predators’ Ball

In the 1980s, Milken invited clients of his former investment banking firm, Drexel Burnham Lambert, to gather with corporate raiders such as T. Boone Pickens, Ivan Boesky and Ron Perelman. The annual meeting, where hostile takeovers were often hatched over cigars, earned the nickname “The Predators’ Ball.” 

This year’s conference, with a lineup of more than 1,000 speakers, includes biomedical pioneers like Noubar Afeyan, co-founder and chairman of Moderna Inc.; retired athletes and current entrepreneurs David Beckham and Earvin “Magic” Johnson; and Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, an activist for health and education causes. 

Late additions to Monday’s speaker list include New York Governor Kathy Hochul and President of Argentina Javier Milei.

On a lighter note, Grover, the beloved puppet from the childrens’ TV show Sesame Street, also made the speaker list.  

An invitation-only panel that’s likely to draw attention, given the Israel-Hamas war and resulting protests on US campuses, is “Beyond the Conflict: Building Bridges for Israel-Palestine Relations.”

The event returns to the Beverly Hilton, which is in the midst of a construction project for an adjacent ultra-luxury Aman Group hotel and residence complex, expected to open before Los Angeles hosts the Olympics in 2028.

As in the past, numerous behind-the-scenes meetings will take place in the suites and restaurants at the Hilton, surrounding hotels and in the private villas of nearby Bel-Air. 

--With assistance from Michael Hytha.

(Adds late additions to Monday’s speaker list.)

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