Looking ahead: PE’s near-term outlook Download Related Report click here. Private equity has enjoyed a historically long business cycle alongside historically low interest rates. With high multiples and lots of dry powder floating around, today’s market bears some resemblance to 2005-2007, but not too much. The latest crop of funds (2016 vintages and later) will…
Is Corporate VC hurting PE? PE investors are no strangers to competition. Fellow PEGs and strategic buyers have been around since the beginning, and family offices and fundless sponsors are fast becoming significant players in the middle market. A new hybrid competitor is starting to flex its muscle, almost undetected by the broader industry: corporate…
Dance with the one who brought you Download PitchBook’s Report click here. Limited partners have found plenty to complain about over the years. They aren’t high maintenance per se, but they do fuel the private equity industry, take an opportunity risk in doing so and often feel short-changed by GPs hungry for more management fee…
Four years’ worth of powder Download PitchBook’s Report click here. Much has been said about PE dry powder levels, which continue to peak year after year. Our calculations show about $848 billion of unspent buyout/growth capital across North America and Europe (as of June 30, by the way). That’s still a 22% increase over year-end…
A closer look at multiples Download PitchBook’s 2017 Annual US PE Middle Market Report click here. The debt markets have been white hot recently, providing a tailwind for private equity and helping prop up valuations across the middle market. While cheap money has been a plus overall, investors have had to cap their debt commitments…
Venturing into new territory Download PitchBook’s Report click here. It would have been hard to predict ten years ago, but private equity is becoming a prominent buyer of venture-backed startups. According to our 2017 Annual VC Liquidity Report, buyouts now account for almost a fifth (18.5%) of all VC-backed exits, up from about 14% in…
How much potential is in the middle market? Quite a bit Download PitchBook’s 2017 Annual US PE Middle Market Report click here. The middle market continues to outpace the broader private equity market. According to PitchBook’s 2017 Annual US PE Middle Market Report, deal volume in the $100M-$1B range last year was about even with…
Add-ons vary by market Download PitchBook’s 2017 Annual US PE Middle Market Report click here. The buy-and-build model is popular in the PE industry. Investors’ appetite for add-ons stretches back about a decade, but most of the increase has taken place in the middle market, specifically at the lower end. Following the financial crisis, lower-…
Software is eating private equity Download PitchBook’s Report click here. The typical hold time for portfolio companies is 5-7 years. As we’ve discussed with the retail sector and others, a lot can change these days in that amount of time. Investors can get caught flat-footed by rapid developments in consumer behavior, energy prices, new legislation,…
A once-in-a-decade fundraising market Download PitchBook’s Report click here. Private equity is a scalable asset class. The same isn’t true for every asset class in the private market – venture funds, for example, tend to lose effectiveness if they grow too large, regardless of sector. Not so with PE, which broadens its target range with…