Fundraising and strong performance have helped North American buyout funds soar in value in recent years. Total assets under management (AUM) stand at $1.38tn as of June 2020, a 3.7x increase since 2005, says Preqin.

Average annual fundraising for North America-focused buyouts has been $117bn per year since 2005, but reached a high of $278bn in 2019, prior to the