Private equity fundraising in Europe is on pace for a record year in terms of total capital raised, as larger fund closes defy industry headwinds.
According to PitchBook’s Q2 2024 European PE Breakdown, European private equity managers raised €92 billion in H1 2024 across just 67 funds.
The year’s robust fundraising totals have largely been thanks to a relatively small group of funds.
Among the most notable closes in Q2 was Partners Group‘s flagship Direct Equity V, which reached a more than $15 billion close in June. The fund has already made three investments, including safety products supplier SureWerx, Swiss watchmaker Breitling, and infrastructure inspection expert Rosen Group. A month prior, Munich-based Bregal Unternehmerkapital raised €2.65 billion for its fourth flagship fund.
However, the total number of PE fund closes still looks to be in decline as a interest rates increase, a lack of exits pushes LPs to become more selective, and fewer distributions are reinvested into new funds.
Fundraising is also taking longer. The median time that it takes a European PE fund to reach a close grew to 18.4 months in H1 2024, up from 12.1 months in 2022. GPs at all fund sizes are affected, but first-time managers and smaller funds seem to be impacted the most.
As noted in PitchBook’s Q1 2024 European PE Breakdown, EQT pushed back its fundraising deadline for EQT X—Europe’s largest fund to close this year, with €22 billion—by six months.
Fundraising bottlenecks are expected to be alleviated into 2025 as central banks start pivoting toward monetary easing.
Featured image by Malte Mueller/Getty Images
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