PEI Awards 2022: Winners

Following a record-breaking year for fundraising in 2021, private equity experienced a tumultuous 2022. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February exacerbated supply chain issues sparked by the covid-19 pandemic, while subsequent increases in costs and interest rate hikes caused headaches for PE forecasters.

The experiences of 2022 were a test in resilience for the asset class – one that it handled well, despite macro challenges.

Many LPs slashed ticket sizes or declined re-up opportunities due to the denominator effect, yet PE fundraising throughout the year reached $727.6 billion, according to data from Private Equity International. While this figure marks a $100 billion drop from 2021’s record-breaking $829.8 billion, 2022’s total still represented an increase on 2017, 2018 and 2020.

Against this backdrop, the annual PEI Awards set out to recognise the private equity industry’s achievements over the past year.

In October-November 2022, PEI invited submissions across more than 70 categories, spanning the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as secondaries.

PEI’s editorial team created a shortlist for each category based on the submissions, their reporting throughout the year, and conversations with the market.

In December-January, readers were invited to cast their votes on the shortlists, or to add their own suggestions if they felt the rightful winner wasn’t listed. They could only vote once, and they could not vote for themselves or their own firm.

We received a swathe of responses from market participants around the world, and the competition for the top spots remained as fierce as ever. Here, you can find out which firms emerged as 2022’s award winners.

We also reveal PEI’s Game Changer of the Year – the only category selected at the discretion of the editorial team. Congratulations to the winners and the finalists, and thank you to all those who took the time to cast their votes.