Manufacturing exits are way down We covered China-driven M&A last week, noting that activity has taken a nosedive this year. Chinese acquirers aren’t buying many American companies at the moment, thanks in part to the broader trade war. According to a newly released report from PitchBook and RSM, however, PE is having a rough time…

China-driven M&A isn’t happening this year Download PitchBook’s Report here. North American M&A activity involving Chinese buyers has fallen off a cliff this year. That’s not a complete surprise, but it’s not often you see such swift drop-offs without something alarming going on. According to PitchBook’s just released North American M&A Report, China-driven M&A is on…

Distributions – timing is everything Download PitchBook’s Report here. With illiquid asset classes like PE, it’s hard but worthwhile to try to figure out how quickly LP dollars go in and out of funds. Our latest analyst note on cash flow management focuses on distribution numbers, with interesting results for market observers and actionable data for…

Public and private Download PitchBook’s Report here. Recent GP stake deals are giving us a growing sample size of private PE firm valuations. We already had a small set for publicly traded PE firms, and we’ve heard ad nauseum that the public markets don’t fully understand how to value firms like Blackstone or Apollo. Much of…

Add-ons keep surging Download PitchBook’s Report here. Add-ons now account for 68% of all US PE buyouts. If that pace holds, 2019 will notch another high-mark for the add-on/LBO ratio, which has been trending up for the past decade. That’s according to PitchBook’s 3Q Breakdown Report, just released this week. Two crosswinds have helped boost that…

Where will all the infrastructure money go? Almost three political centuries ago, expectations were high for a bi-partisan and highly funded infrastructure bill. While a lot has happened since January 2017, the promised infrastructure package was not one of them. Recall, though, the fervent efforts among PE investors to piggyback off of those plans. Blackstone…

Usually good but seldom great Download PitchBook’s Report here. PE mega-funds (of at least $5 billion) have tended to outperform smaller funds over the past 20 years. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, as mega-funds are only raised by firms that have outperformed over time. At least for private equity, the biggest firms are almost by…

Middle market update Download PitchBook’s Report here. Middle market PE activity was strong through the first half of the year, according to PitchBook’s newly calculated Middle Market Report. Both deal value and overall volume are on pace to match or exceed last year’s numbers, both of which were records. The back half of the year has…

Eight years in the black Between 2017 and 2018, LPs were on the receiving end of nearly $1 trillion in private equity returns, according to PitchBook’s new Global Fund Performance Report. Distributions came in at $480 billion last year, just off the record set in 2017 of $488.4 billion. Net cashflows topped $150 billion for…

Drawdowns are slower than they used to be Download PitchBook’s Report here. Record years for PE activity are often viewed as fast-moving frenzies, but capital call statistics show the industry is investing much more slowly than it has in the past. Drawdown rates have been relatively slow since 2012, even though 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and…