Research

Chart of the week: Look for nearly $250 billion to be raised this year by U.S. firms

For the past four years the H1 fundraising totals average 46.8 percent of what turn out to be the yearly tallies. Using that same formula, the year-end fundraising total for U.S. sponsors of buyout and mezzanine funds projects to shoot far past last year’s healthy total and flirt with the $250 billion mark. 2015 has been a strong year in fundraising and there are no signs of it slowing down, given the record levels of distributions driving the demand from institutional investors and plenty of funds to put their money in.

Chart of the week: What are buyers' biggest obstacles to deal-making?

In order to gauge the outlook of the M&A market for the second half of 2015, Axial surveyed 100 bankers, investors and lenders. What they found was 81 percent believe the deal flow is being hampered by either high valuations or unrealistic ask prices.

Market at a glance

U.S.-based buyout and mezzanine fundraising had a strong two-week period, seeing its year-to-date total hit $139 billion. As it currently stands, this year’s aggregate is $19.3 billion ahead of where it was at this time in 2014.

LP Scorecard: Ten young funds bloom in paradise

In the Crossroads of the Pacific, the Employees’ Retirement System of the State of Hawaii reigns over $1.4 billion in committed capital across 167 active funds. To get a picture for what the future of its private equity portfolio holds, we pulled out the top funds by IRR from 2009-14 from Hawaii’s latest performance data. The accompanying table shows the top 10.

Market at a glance

U.S.-based buyout and mezzanine fundraising had a prolific two-week period, seeing its burgeoning 2015 aggregate expand by $13.1 billion. This year’s total sits $20.6 billion ahead of where it was at the same time last year.

LP Scorecard: Ten young funds off to a hot start for Montana

In the vast frontier of Big Sky Country, the Montana Board of Investments pension fund resides over $2.3 billion in committed capital. In order to take a look at the promise of future gains, we pulled out the top funds from 2010-14 by IRR from Montana’s latest performance data. This left us with a pool of 48 funds. The following table shows the top 10.

Q2 2015 Financial and Legal Adviser League Tables

Download the year-to-date 2015 league tables for financial and legal advisers.

Chart of the week: Private companies register solid revenue growth in Q1: Golub Capital

Median revenue growth at 150 privately-owned companies in the Golub Capital loan portfolio dipped below 8 percent in the first quarter but remained strong, according to the latest Golub Capital Middle Market Report. Revenue growth in the portfolio beat that for companies in three major stock indices–the S&P 500, the Russell 2000 and the S&P SmallCap 600.

Chart of the week: EBITDA growth rate at private companies declines for two straight quarters: Golub Capital

Median year-over-year EBITDA growth rates at 150 portfolio companies financed by Golub Capital have fallen for two straight quarters, according to the Golub Capital Middle Market Report. However, the first-quarter growth rate remained well above 6 percent and beat the comparable growth rates at companies in the S&P 500 and S&P SmallCap 600 but lagged the comparable growth rates at companies in the Russell 2000.

Get your Q2 2015 Private Equity slideshow

Download the “Buyouts Insider Q2 2015 Highlights” slide show from the “related files” tab to see the latest trends and statistics in private equity fundraising, deals and exits.