Chart of the week: The rise of sector-specific private equity fundraising

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As TSG Consumer Partners returns to the market with two new sector-specific private equity funds, targeting $2.5 billion for investments into consumer goods companies, PEI’s Research & Analytics team has analysed how sector-specific fundraising compares with sector-agnostic fundraising for closed-ended private equity vehicles.

The proportion of capital gathered for sector-specific private equity vehicles remained at 18 to 19 percent of the aggregate capital raised between 2012 and 2014. With just three months of 2015 left to go, this figure has risen to 25 percent. Although the year is yet to end, sector-specific fundraising is now at the highest proportion of overall fundraising since 2008. In total, $73.97 billion was raised for sector-specific funds this year, with sector-agnostic vehicles gathering $224.92 billion.

EnCap Energy Capital Fund X is the largest sector-specific fund to have held a final close in 2015 so far. The vehicle had an initial target size of $5 billion but closed in April 2015 having collected $6.5 billion to invest into energy companies in North America. In 2015 to date, 19 closed-ended private equity funds have raised over $1 billion each for sector-specific investments.

There are 801 sector-specific private equity vehicles currently in market or coming to market targeting $165.69 billion collectively. In terms of target size, the largest of these is the $8 billion Riverstone Global Energy & Power Fund VI which will invest into energy companies globally.