July 12, 2024
Private Equity: Dealmaking on the Rebound?
The fourth quarter of 2023 saw an uptick in global M&A activity that’s continued through the second quarter of 2024, but until recently, Private Equity didn’t appear to participate in the rebound. According to a new PitchBook report on PE deal activity, that started to change in the second quarter. Here’s an excerpt from the intro:
For the six months ending March 2024, PE had been holding back what appeared to be a budding recovery in global M&A dealmaking. Consequently, PE share of M&A deal value plummeted to a worrisome 32.6% in Q1 2024, extending a one-year losing streak after eight years of steady gains and peaking at 44.0% in 2022. This left many observers—ourselves included—concerned as to whether PE would participate fully in the upside of an M&A rebound. In the latest quarter at least, PE appears to be joining in. PE deal activity is now tracking ahead of the prior year by approximately 12.0% through H1 2024. This has arrested the decline in PE share of dealmaking, which has stabilized at 36.8% of all M&A.
The report also says that, after being mired in a decade-plus low during 2022-2023, exit volumes are starting to pick up, although many of these are partial exits such as a sale and rollover of a minority stake.
– John Jenkins