Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: Global private equity (PE) funds produced another impressive surge in investment value in 2018, capping the strongest five-year stretch in the industry's history with $2.5tn in disclosed buyout deal value.
The total buyout value jumped 10% in 2018 to $582bn, capping the strongest five-year run in the industry's history, revealed Bain & Company's tenth annual Global Private Equity Report.
Limited partners (LPs) remained highly enthusiastic and continued to flood the market with fresh capital.
For general partners (GPs), putting record amounts of capital to work meant getting comfortable with a certain level of discomfort when investing. They were paying prices they swore they would never pay and looking to capture value that may prove elusive post-close.
The most effective GPs stepped up their game to identify targets and sharpen diligence, while simultaneously planning for the worst.
"The last five years, from 2014-2018, have been some of the best in the private equity industry. We've seen some of the highest levels of capital raised and put to work, the most exits and decent returns," said Hugh MacArthur, global head of Bain & Company's Private Equity practice.
Fierce competition and rising asset prices continued to constrain deal count-pushing down the number of individual buyout transactions by 13%, to 2,936 worldwide-but total buyout value jumped 10% to $582bn (including add-on deals), capping...................... To view our full article Click here
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