Barreling toward a record Download PitchBook’s Report here. US middle market PE activity is set to break records this year. Through Q3, more than 2,000 transactions have closed totaling $289 billion in investments. At that pace, 2018 is looking at more than 2,700 deals at more than $385 billion invested....

Are SBOs a drag on fund performance? Download PitchBook’s Report here. Secondary buyouts are one of the most critiqued aspects of the private equity industry. But SBOs aren’t going anywhere, and they represent one of the largest deal sourcing opportunities in today’s market. Still, it’s worthwhile to investigate the wisdom of buying “used” portfolio companies, since

Foreign investment in the spotlight Download PitchBook’s Report here. Foreign PE investment in US-based companies has been strong going back to 2014. And consistent. Since 2014, non-US investors were involved in about 12% of all US-based PE investments per year. The US private equity market is easily the most developed market available, and while the European

PE fundraising trending down Download PitchBook’s Report here. The PE fundraising trail hasn’t been too difficult to navigate lately. For one, most newly raised funds are larger in size than their predecessors. About 69% of the funds that closed last year were larger than their predecessors, and the percentage was even higher for 2016 vintages—76%. Moreover,

PE firms are no longer clubbing Download PitchBook’s Report here. Club deals are something of a sticky issue in the private equity world. PE firms themselves don’t mind them—the risk is spread around—nor do lenders mind them, who also presume less risk with more reputable investors involved. Dry powders levels have skyrocketed, and club deals allow

Are the good times over? Download PitchBook’s Report here. Private equity’s calling card, from its early days in the 80s through the mid-2000s, has been its ability to beat the market. The asset class pretty handily beat stocks in bull and bear markets alike. Until 2006, LPs in PE funds had at least a 50/50 shot

GP stakes investing—a new trend, or market timing? Download PitchBook’s Report here. Last week we discussed the rising trend of GP stake sales, which are now officially in record territory in terms of volume. For now, GP stake transactions are highly concentrated in large, top-performing firms. That makes sense—buying a stake in a GP hinges on

GP stakes investing—a new trend emerging? Download PitchBook’s Report here. TPG Capital, one of the largest PE firms to retain its partnership structure, flirted with the idea of going public this year. Many of its peers are already publicly traded—Blackstone, KKR and Apollo, to name a few. But since going public, their shares haven’t performed very

Tariff questions, private equity edition Download PitchBook’s 2Q 2018 M&A Report here. Like every tariff-related conversation, it’s too early to tell what impacts they’ll have on private equity. But like many PE-related conversations, different investors see different outcomes when looking at the same thing. Carlyle’s David Rubenstein, in an interview with CNBC, says that while the

Strategics are the real barbarians “Barbarians at the gate” is an idiom that has lived past its shelf life. Classifying PE firms as barbarians implies they can raid and conquer at will. There was a tinge of truth to that in the 80s, but it’s a laughable argument in today’s market. As any investor will