The latest statistics from British research house
Tom Lamb, co-head of
The half-yearly figures represents a dramatic turnaround for the UK following a very slow opening quarter. Just £3.4bn worth of deals were completed in Q1, the lowest quarter for three years.
Mark Pacitti, Corporate Finance Partner at
The retail sector has been the main recipient of private equity money so far in 2007 – £12.4bn has been invested, almost quadruple the £3.3bn of last year. However, this money has been concentrated into a number of high-profile deals as just 21 were completed, around a third of the total number for last year. Second on the list in terms of amount invested is the property and construction sector which saw £2.2bn invested in 15 deals.
Total public to private buy-outs in the first six months of 2007 have reached record levels of £14bn compared to nearly £6bn last year, accounting for two thirds of the total market value.
The level of fundraising has continued to be very high and is already at nearly £11bn, over half the record total of £20.2bn set in 2006.