Research

Market at a Glance: Hellman & Friedman IX hauls in $16 bln as fundraising strengthens

November 19 2018

private equity, merger, M&A, fundraising

U.S.-based buyout and mezzanine fundraising added $23.5 billion to the year-to-date total, nearly triple the addition from the last issue of Buyouts. This year is closing the gap from its YTD 2017 total, but still trails by $13.7 billion, or 7.1 percent.

Four funds crossed the billion-dollar mark:

Hellman & Friedman’s ninth flagship closed at $16 billion. The total is aggregated across all its parallel funds.
Thomas H. Lee Partners added more than $3.3 billion to its eighth flagship. The fund has raised more than $3.58 billion across its related investment vehicles.
Energy Capital Partners’ fourth flagship pool raised more than $1.5 billion of a targeted $6 billion. The firm targets energy infrastructure.
Palladium Equity Partners closed its fifth flagship at $1.5 billion. It focuses on consumer services, industrials and healthcare with an emphasis on companies serving the U.S. Hispanic population.

Surge in deals

Completed deals kept up a strong pace, adding more than $5 billion to the year-to-date total, which is now nearly $226 billion. That is $60 billion more than the YTD 2017 total.

Only one deal crossed the billion-dollar threshold: General Electric Co sold its Distributed Power business to Advent International Corp for $3.25 billion. The transaction included Distributed Power’s Jenbacher and Waukesha engines. On completion, the new entity was renamed Innio.

The next-largest disclosed deal was Blackstone’s acquisition of Caprock Midstream from Energy Spectrum Capital for $950 million in cash. On completion, Caprock — a producer of crude petroleum and natural gas — will be renamed EagleClaw Midstream II.