U.S. PE firms pull back in Canada Last year saw a decade high of 201 U.S.-headquartered private equity firms invest in Canada, far outstripping the 129 domestic firms that were active in the same timeframe. Through the end of 1Q 2016, however, U.S. and Canadian PE firms are nearly evenly matched. This equalizing occurred as…

U.S. PE-backed hold times in the middle market remain high Reflecting the decline in private equity-backed exit activity observed across the whole market in the first quarter of 2016, U.S. PE-backed exits in the middle market were also quite low, with only 170 sales for nearly $13 billion recorded. After the banner run PE sellers…

PE Firms Looking Lower for Value As prices remain stubbornly high in many cases, a surge in overall private equity deal value in the reaches of the U.S. lower middle market is not wholly unexpected – on a quarterly basis, deal value was up by over 80% from 4Q while transactions jumped 14% in number….

Will 2016 Record More Add-ons Than Last Year? As a proportion of overall U.S. buyout activity, add-ons have gone from strength to strength. But the latest quarterly numbers have topped them all. In the first quarter of 2016, add-ons comprised 68% of all private equity buyout activity. While this percentage will likely decline as the…

98% of U.S. PE Funds Closed in Q1 Either Hit or Exceeded Target In the first quarter of 2016, 71 U.S. PE funds closed on a total of $51.8 billion in capital commitments. Of those 71 vehicles, no less than 98% either hit or exceeded their target. This proportion is unprecedented, even by the standards…

The Bigger, the Better: Private Equity Funds Still Trending Upward in Size Although there is a fair amount of quarterly variance in median private equity fund sizes, there has been a distinct trend upward since the end of 2013, with the closing quarter of 2015 cresting at just over $300 million across all PE fund…

As Investment Activity Slows, Competition for Quality Remains Fierce As March winds down, the first quarter of 2016 currently has seen around 700 private equity deals close in the U.S. Taking the total as 700, that completed deal count represents a drop of nearly 29% from the tally of 4Q 2015, which itself saw the…

Will Net Cash Flows Decline for PE Fund Investors? Since 2010, there has been a markedly recurrent yearly increase in total distributions to investors in private equity funds. This increase, as well as relatively plateaued contributions, has produced a significantly positive net cash flow for global PE funds. Through the first half of 2015, net…

PE funds from Recent Vintages Outpacing Those Hit by Financial Crisis The ramifications of the financial crisis are still apparent in the numbers posted by private equity funds. Let’s take DPI multiples as a sample metric for now; for vintages most affected by the crisis—2005, 2006 and 2007, as indicated above—the deleterious effects… Login to

How Will Competition Among Fund Managers Affect Future Industry Performance Disparity? Post-recession private equity funds experienced a tightening of IRR spreads across several different vintages, as fund managers of all tiers weathered the economic downturn. 2010 and more recent vintages, however, have seen a widening of the spread…. Login to Read More...