European private equity fundraising in 2023 has almost hit €116 billion (about $125 billion), close to the all-time high of €118.7 billion raised in 2021.
But it has been a year of haves and have-nots, with most fundraising driven by a handful of mega-funds.
In July, CVC Capital Partners closed its ninth flagship fund on €26 billion, exceeding its €25 billion target, making it the world’s largest-ever buyout fund.
Permira‘s VIII fund was another blockbuster, closing on €16.7 billion, €1.7 above target. It’s the third largest-ever PE fund to close in Europe.
Overall, as of Dec. 12, 106 European PE funds had closed in 2023, collectively raising €115.9 billion—a 35.9% increase compared with full-year 2022. Of these, the 10 largest funds accounted for €80.5 billion of that total.
In 2021, the €118.7 billion raised was spread across 270 fund closes. This year, while large funds have been able to secure capital commitments en masse, smaller and less-established funds struggled to make an impact.
All 10 of this year’s largest European PE funds are buyout funds. The largest growth fund to close in 2023 is PSG‘s second European growth fund. Closing on €2.6 billion put it in 11th position.
The UK was home to half of the 10 biggest funds, with France and Luxembourg each accounting for two and the Netherlands one. Swedish funds are notably absent from the top 10 in 2023—they accounted for three of the region’s biggest fund closes in 2022. The largest fund close in the Nordic region this year was Norvestor‘s IX fund, which closed on €1.5 billion in October.
As of Dec. 12, there were 116 open funds seeking commitments. The largest was Triton‘s Fund VI, which is targeting €5.5 billion, and Allianz‘s Core Private Markets Fund which is seeking €3 billion.
Featured image by Future Publishing/Getty Images
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