Flush with Cash, Private Equity Investors Look for Next Big Fund Opportunity

An exceptional year for exits in 2014 left limited partners eager to top up their allocations to private equity, but many remained highly selective in the commitments they were prepared to make.

By Hugh MacArthur, Graham Elton, Bill Halloran and Suvir Varma

Forbes.com

Flush with Cash, Private Equity Investors Look for Next Big Fund Opportunity

An exceptional year for exits in 2014 left limited partners eager to top up their allocations to private equity, but many remained highly selective in the commitments they were prepared to make.

By Hugh MacArthur, Graham Elton, Bill Halloran and Suvir Varma

Published on April 14, 2015
min read


This article originally appeared on Forbes.com. An exceptional year for exits in 2014 left limited partners (LPs) flush with cash distributions and eager to top up their allocations to private equity (PE), their best-performing asset class. But as we explain in Bain & Company’s Global Private Equity Report, LPs remained highly selective in the commitments they were prepared to make. Worldwide, 1,001 PE funds landed $499 billion in new capital commitments last year. This value was 6% less than the year before, but funds raised over the past two years exceeded that in all but the boom years between 2006 and 2008 (see figure). The 11% drop in buyout fund-raising from a year earlier was more a consequence of the idiosyncrasies of the funds that happened to be in the market than a sign of weakness. In 2013, buyout firms recorded the close of five mega-funds exceeding $10 billion. Last year saw the close of just one such fund, the $10.9 billion Hellman & Friedman VIII, but it came in at 22% above target within six months. Although many LPs remain averse to mega-buyout funds, larger LPs with a lot of capital to invest have little choice other than to sign on if they are going to meet their PE asset-allocation goal. Indeed, the best of the mega-buyout funds turned away LPs looking to make new commitments. If the bigger buyout funds found it harder to win over reluctant LPs, mid-market funds looking to raise between $500 million and $3 billion faced no such reticence. General partners (GPs) shopping these funds won commitments totaling $68 billion in 2014, and competition among LPs to get an allocation with the better-performing GPs was fierce. LPs have lots of room—and plenty of capital—to back new PE funds. They have seen a bounty of cash flow their way over the past four years as distributions from GPs exiting mature investments have outpaced capital calls in a slower-paced deal-making environment. This recycling of capital is one important pillar supporting PE fund-raising, and it has been gaining strength in all major regions of the world. Another crucial support holding up fund-raising over the past two years has been the strong returns generated by the bullish public equity markets. Rising stock prices have inflated the unrealized value of institutional investors’ overall portfolio holdings, requiring them to boost their new commitments to PE funds simply to maintain their target allocation for the asset category. LPs looking for PE funds to back had an abundance of choices. GPs shopping more than 2,000 funds of every description and across all geographies were on the road as 2014 began, looking to raise approximately $740 billion. Sponsors of buyout funds were looking to raise more than one-quarter of capital sought worldwide. The pace and intensity of fund-raising remain hot and are markedly improved over what they had been earlier in this PE cycle. With demand from LPs finally coming into full bloom, the fund-raising market in 2013 and 2014 settled into a more normal equilibrium. More than twice as many buyout funds came to market last year as closed during the year, with GPs looking to raise two times more capital than LPs ended up committing. Still, the persistent imbalance between GP supply and LP demand continues to make fund-raising challenging. The average amount of time GPs needed to raise a new PE fund still hovers at nearly 17 months—little changed since the global financial crisis. Of course, averages obscure the reality that the most successful and sought-after GPs have been able to raise new capital quickly and easily. Among the PE funds that closed in 2014, 30% met or exceeded their fund-raising target within 12 months, a meaningful improvement from two years ago. Buyout fund-raisers were more successful, with nearly half raising the capital they sought within a year. The improved fund-raising results enjoyed by top-performing firms is spilling over to other GPs more broadly. Money that could not find a home in a new fund of a top-performing GP is cascading down to GPs with weaker or shorter track records, enabling more funds to successfully raise capital. Written by Hugh MacArthur, Graham Elton, Bill Halloran and Suvir Varma, leaders of Bain & Company’s Private Equity Group.

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com.

An exceptional year for exits in 2014 left limited partners (LPs) flush with cash distributions and eager to top up their allocations to private equity (PE), their best-performing asset class. But as we explain in Bain & Company’s Global Private Equity Report, LPs remained highly selective in the commitments they were prepared to make.

Worldwide, 1,001 PE funds landed $499 billion in new capital commitments last year. This value was 6% less than the year before, but funds raised over the past two years exceeded that in all but the boom years between 2006 and 2008 (see figure).

The 11% drop in buyout fund-raising from a year earlier was more a consequence of the idiosyncrasies of the funds that happened to be in the market than a sign of weakness. In 2013, buyout firms recorded the close of five mega-funds exceeding $10 billion. Last year saw the close of just one such fund, the $10.9 billion Hellman & Friedman VIII, but it came in at 22% above target within six months. Although many LPs remain averse to mega-buyout funds, larger LPs with a lot of capital to invest have little choice other than to sign on if they are going to meet their PE asset-allocation goal. Indeed, the best of the mega-buyout funds turned away LPs looking to make new commitments.

If the bigger buyout funds found it harder to win over reluctant LPs, mid-market funds looking to raise between $500 million and $3 billion faced no such reticence. General partners (GPs) shopping these funds won commitments totaling $68 billion in 2014, and competition among LPs to get an allocation with the better-performing GPs was fierce.

LPs have lots of room—and plenty of capital—to back new PE funds. They have seen a bounty of cash flow their way over the past four years as distributions from GPs exiting mature investments have outpaced capital calls in a slower-paced deal-making environment. This recycling of capital is one important pillar supporting PE fund-raising, and it has been gaining strength in all major regions of the world.

Another crucial support holding up fund-raising over the past two years has been the strong returns generated by the bullish public equity markets. Rising stock prices have inflated the unrealized value of institutional investors’ overall portfolio holdings, requiring them to boost their new commitments to PE funds simply to maintain their target allocation for the asset category.

LPs looking for PE funds to back had an abundance of choices. GPs shopping more than 2,000 funds of every description and across all geographies were on the road as 2014 began, looking to raise approximately $740 billion. Sponsors of buyout funds were looking to raise more than one-quarter of capital sought worldwide.

The pace and intensity of fund-raising remain hot and are markedly improved over what they had been earlier in this PE cycle. With demand from LPs finally coming into full bloom, the fund-raising market in 2013 and 2014 settled into a more normal equilibrium. More than twice as many buyout funds came to market last year as closed during the year, with GPs looking to raise two times more capital than LPs ended up committing.

Still, the persistent imbalance between GP supply and LP demand continues to make fund-raising challenging. The average amount of time GPs needed to raise a new PE fund still hovers at nearly 17 months—little changed since the global financial crisis. Of course, averages obscure the reality that the most successful and sought-after GPs have been able to raise new capital quickly and easily. Among the PE funds that closed in 2014, 30% met or exceeded their fund-raising target within 12 months, a meaningful improvement from two years ago. Buyout fund-raisers were more successful, with nearly half raising the capital they sought within a year. The improved fund-raising results enjoyed by top-performing firms is spilling over to other GPs more broadly. Money that could not find a home in a new fund of a top-performing GP is cascading down to GPs with weaker or shorter track records, enabling more funds to successfully raise capital.

Written by Hugh MacArthur, Graham Elton, Bill Halloran and Suvir Varma, leaders of Bain & Company’s Private Equity Group.