Private equity funds soared to new heights in 2017 and show few signs of slowing down in the new year.
According to a report by Preqin, 921 private equity funds reached a final close in the last year and secured $453 billion in investor commitments: a new fundraising record. In fact, as more data becomes available, Preqin acknowledged that the actual amount raised could increase by as much as 10%. A major catalyst of this fundraising were mega buyout funds of $4.5 billion or more—they secured an impressive $174 billion in investor commitments last year—as well as North American and European-focused funds.
Notably, the previous fundraising record was set in 2007 as 1,044 funds secured $414 billion in investor commitments. This context makes 2017’s fundraising that much more impressive since fewer funds were able to secure an even larger supply of capital, thus highlighting the strength of private equity as an asset class today.
Funds also flew past another milestone in 2017 as the amount of dry powder, or committed but undeployed capital, exceeded $1 trillion for the first time. Despite this tremendous reservoir of capital, a report from PitchBook found that 52% of private equity professionals plan to raise a new fund this year with the hope that any new funds will raise at least as much as previous funds. GPs and other private equity professionals must feel an incredible level of confidence in their products and potential in order to raise additional funds, and furthermore, this also signals confidence that investors will continue to commit to new funds despite mountains of existing dry powder.
Additionally, the PitchBook report also noted that 70% of GPs do not intend to offer “special incentives,” including fee breaks or co-investment opportunities, to investors who make early or large commitments, which indicates GPs and funds still hold most of the cards in fundraising negotiations.
Private equity’s recent successes appear to validate predictions by experts that the asset and wealth management (AWM) industry will grow spectacularly throughout the coming decade. In an earlier blog post, I discussed a report by PwC profiling the future of the AWM industry, which predicted that total assets under management will practically double from $84.9 trillion in 2016 to $145.5 trillion by 2025. With private equity setting new fundraising records and accumulating unprecedented amounts of dry powder, PwC’s vision for the future of AWM seems to ring true.