Business Day

The Downturn That Did Not Wreck Private Equity

The private equity industry withstood the maelstrom far better than commonly expected.

By Hugh MacArthur, Graham Elton and Andrei Vorobyov

Published on April 25, 2016
min read


This article originally appeared on Business Day. The global financial meltdown was a disaster for banks, brokerages, insurers and investors, as credit seized up and equity markets tanked. However, as we report in Bain & Company’s Global Private Equity Report 2016, a special in-depth analysis comparing how private equity (PE) fared during the past downturn versus the previous one following the collapse of the tech bubble in 2000 showed that in one crucial respect the private equity industry withstood the maelstrom far better than commonly expected. Sure, the downturn claimed private equity firms by the hundreds: 26% of the 4,019 buyout firms that had raised a new fund between 2002 and 2008 went dark after the crisis hit, not raising another fund since 2009 and appearing unlikely to do so ever again. Indeed, our investigation found that the casualty rate of buyout firms was somewhat higher than that triggered by the bursting of the tech bubble in 2001, but off a much larger base. Then, 21% of the 196 firms that had been active new fundraisers between 1992 and 2001 failed to raise a subsequent fund after 2002. But by one crucial measure — the proportion of total assets under management (AUM) of buyout funds — the effects of the 2008 downturn were far milder. The assets under management represented by the firms that did not raise new funds after 2002 were 20% of the industry total raised in the previous period. By sharp contrast, firms that failed to raise a new fund after 2009 represented just 6% of total buyout fund assets under management raised between 2002 and 2008. Read the full article at Business Day. Hugh MacArthur and Graham Elton are leaders of Bain & Company’s Private Equity Group. Andrei Vorobyov is a Bain & Company partner based in Johannesburg where he leads Africa’s private equity and M&A practices.

This article originally appeared on Business Day.

The global financial meltdown was a disaster for banks, brokerages, insurers and investors, as credit seized up and equity markets tanked. However, as we report in Bain & Company’s Global Private Equity Report 2016, a special in-depth analysis comparing how private equity (PE) fared during the past downturn versus the previous one following the collapse of the tech bubble in 2000 showed that in one crucial respect the private equity industry withstood the maelstrom far better than commonly expected.

Sure, the downturn claimed private equity firms by the hundreds: 26% of the 4,019 buyout firms that had raised a new fund between 2002 and 2008 went dark after the crisis hit, not raising another fund since 2009 and appearing unlikely to do so ever again. Indeed, our investigation found that the casualty rate of buyout firms was somewhat higher than that triggered by the bursting of the tech bubble in 2001, but off a much larger base. Then, 21% of the 196 firms that had been active new fundraisers between 1992 and 2001 failed to raise a subsequent fund after 2002. But by one crucial measure — the proportion of total assets under management (AUM) of buyout funds — the effects of the 2008 downturn were far milder. The assets under management represented by the firms that did not raise new funds after 2002 were 20% of the industry total raised in the previous period. By sharp contrast, firms that failed to raise a new fund after 2009 represented just 6% of total buyout fund assets under management raised between 2002 and 2008.

Read the full article at Business Day.

Hugh MacArthur and Graham Elton are leaders of Bain & Company’s Private Equity Group. Andrei Vorobyov is a Bain & Company partner based in Johannesburg where he leads Africa’s private equity and M&A practices.