The PE Industry Off to a Busy Start in 2010

210 private equity investments have been completed or announced so far in 2010 according to the PitchBook Platform. February accounted for almost half of the total with 90 completed or announced deals, a nice improvement over the 77 deals last February. Trends are beginning to emerge such as the attractiveness of the commercial services (45 deals), healthcare (30 deals) and information technology (27 deals) industries, as well as the increasing number of add-on deals, totaling 71 or 44% of all buyouts to be exact.

A total of 157 private equity investors have made U.S. investments so far this year. They are led by The Blackstone Group with 7 deals, Metalmark Capital with 5 deals and a group of investors including H.I.G. Capital, BlackEagle Partners, and Lightyear Capital with 4 deals. There is no surprise as to who have been the most active PE deal service providers with the top three all law firms - Jones Day, Kirkland & Ellis and Ropes & Gray. Among the financial advisors, Jefferies & Company, Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin and Credit Suisse have been the most active with 5 deals apiece.