2020 prediction – a dip in fundraising Download PitchBook’s Report here. 2019 fundraising levels hit record territory in the US, passing $300 billion for the first time. Year-end numbers show a decline in the number of fund closings, though, which fell to 202. Despite the capital haul, that’s the fewest US fund closings since 2012. Taken…

2020 prediction – more VC-to-PE buyouts Download PitchBook’s Report here. Our 2020 Private Equity Outlook went out last week, and we’ll delve into some of our predictions as we roll into the new year. One trend we expect to see more of is VC-to-PE buyouts. Though they’re often mentioned in the same sentence, venture capital and…

Middle market firms rarely target the public market Download PitchBook’s Report here. Middle market investors aren’t known for prolific take-private activity, but the percentages are surprisingly low. For the past two years, middle-market take-privates have accounted for less than 2% of all middle market activity. 2% is pretty skimpy. Dating back to 2014, MM buyouts have…

Grading our predictions, part 3 Download PitchBook’s Report here. The past couple weeks we’ve been covering some of the PE predictions we made last year. We’ll be doing a much deeper dive on our upcoming free webinar, co-hosted with ACG. Here’s the registration link, and mark your calendars for December 17th if you’d like to join.Yours…

Grading our predictions, part 2 Download PitchBook’s Report here. Last week we previewed our upcoming webinar with ACG on how our 2019 private equity predictions panned out. This week’s rearview assessments is one of our misses—we thought private debt fundraising levels would rebound off of a slower 2018. Slow being relative, as it was still one…

Grading our predictions Download PitchBook’s Report here. Earlier this year, we published our 2019 Private Equity Outlook, our crystal ball analyst note where we took a crack at predicting trends in the year ahead. With 2019 wrapping up, we’ll be grading our predictions in an ACG webinar on December 17. We’ll provide the link in next…

PE’s tech infatuation Download PitchBook’s Report here. Tech-focused dry powder has almost doubled since 2016. The latest returns data available is through March of this year, when it totaled $93.1 billion across North America and Europe. That marked a 93% increase since 2016’s cumulative $48.2 billion, according to PitchBook’s latest analyst note on tech funds. The…

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…