How Carlyle’s $18.5bn raise compares with its peers

The Carlyle Group has held the final close on its seventh flagship buyout fund on its $18.5 billion hard-cap.

Carlyle Partners VII, which had a $15 billion target, attracted more than 320 limited partners from 57 countries, according to a statement. The firm, along with its senior professionals, operating executives and other professionals, committed $1 billion to the vehicle.

Carlyle sits at the top of the PEI 300 this year having raised more than $60 billion in the five years to 1 April.

Fund VII is 42 percent larger than Carlyle’s previous flagship, a $13 billion 2013-vintage, which had been the firm’s biggest. The jump in fund size follows a trend of managers raising increasingly large sums of capital amid voracious LP appetites for blue-chip vehicles.

How does Fund VII compare with its fellow private equity mega-funds?