Buyouts Beat: Warburg’s 10th fund tops off at $15B

Fund-raising activity picked up during the last week, led by Warburg Pincus. The New York-based mega-firm has raised $15 billion for its 10th fund after holding two closings. The most recent round of commitments within the last week brought in $6 billion.

Warburg Pincus began marketing the fund, Warburg Pincus Private Equity Fund X, in May 2007, with a $12 billion target. The firm raised $8 billion for fund IX in 2005.

Platinum Equity has also been an active fund-raiser recently. The Los Angeles-based firm held an interim close on Platinum Equity Capital Partners II, for which the firm has raised $2.5 billion to date. The fund is nearing its $2.75 billion hard cap. Year-to-date, U.S.-based managers of buyout and mezzanine funds have raised nearly $48 billion.

Deal activity, however, continues its slow, but steady pace. U.S.-based LBO shops completed 13 transactions during the past week. Half a dozen of these deals had disclosed amounts that had an aggregate value of about $4.9 billion, according to Thomson Financial (publisher of PE Week).

Among the highlights of the last week were two transactions that each surpassed $1 billion in value. The largest was Vestar Capital Partners’ acquisition of Radiation Therapy Services Inc. for about $1.1 billion. The other was TPG Capital’s purchase of Axcan Pharma Inc., a prescription drug maker and developer, also for about $1.1 billion.

Year-to-date disclosed deal volume stands at $33.7 billion. —Eamon Beltran