Key Takeaways
- • Buyout investment value rebounded 37% year over year to $602 billion in 2024, excluding add-on deals, after the worst dealmaking decline since the global financial crisis, according to Bain & Company's 2025 Global Private Equity Report.
- • Deal count rose about 10% to roughly 3,000 transactions, while the average global deal size climbed to $849 million, the second-highest on record, and deals of $1 billion or more accounted for 77% of value.
- • Fund-raising lagged as limited partners concentrated capital in the largest, top-performing funds, with distributions still trailing contributions in five of the last six years.
- • Industry dry powder fell slightly from $1.3 trillion to $1.2 trillion, but aging dry powder (held four years or longer) rose to 24% of the total from 20% in 2022.
- • Coinvestment volume rose roughly 30% from pre-pandemic levels, and public-to-private take-privates approached $250 billion globally, per StepStone data cited by Bain.
Summary
Bain & Company's 2025 private equity outlook characterizes 2024 as the first year in roughly two and a half years in which investment and exit activity reversed their declines, though it cautions that a full recovery remains uncertain. Bain notes that the past few years have been the industry's most challenging period since the global financial crisis, and that dealmaking appears to have turned a corner as general partners pursued deals amid slowly easing central bank rates. Bain warns that momentum in 2025 depends on macro conditions and policy, with an early-year slowdown in global M&A and uncertainty around tariffs and inflation keeping markets on edge.
Buyout investment value rose 37% to $602 billion, excluding add-ons, with the average global deal size reaching $849 million. Deal count grew about 10% to around 3,000. Deal value in Europe grew 54% and North America 34%, while Asia-Pacific value rose 11%, held back by slower growth in China and a decline in Japan. Financial services deal value rose 92% and industrials 81%. Technology remained the largest sector at 33% of buyout value. Public-to-private transactions approached $250 billion globally, including Vista Equity Partners and Blackstone's $8.4 billion buyout of Smartsheet and KKR's acquisition of a 50% stake in Cotiviti from Veritas Capital at a valuation of around $10 billion.
Fundraising moved in the opposite direction. Bain describes LPs as concentrating allocations in the largest, most experienced funds with strong track records, while most other funds struggled. Bain attributes this to lagging distributions following the 2021 deal boom and the subsequent exit slowdown. Using a pattern it compares to the post-financial-crisis period, Bain says distributions have trailed contributions in five of the last six years. GPs have responded with minority stake sales, dividend recapitalizations, secondaries and NAV loans, which Bain says raised $410 billion, and 30% of buyout portfolio companies have experienced some form of liquidity event.
Financing conditions improved, though not uniformly. Syndicated loan issuance rose 83% to $110 billion, leveraged loan yields in the US fell 1.4 percentage points, and refinancing in the US and Europe rose almost 80% to around $380 billion. Average debt multiples remained at 4.9 times EBITDA, well below prepandemic levels. Average deal multiples rose to 11.9 times EBITDA in North America and a record 12.1 times in Europe, according to StepStone analysis cited by Bain. Private credit's share of middle-market loan issuance rose to 90% from 36% over the past decade. Bain also reports that coinvestment volume rose about 30% from pre-pandemic levels, though only half of LPs seeking coinvestment opportunities have been able to participate, per a StepStone survey of 145 GPs and 420 funds.
Buyout investment value rose 37% to $602 billion, excluding add-ons, with the average global deal size reaching $849 million. Deal count grew about 10% to around 3,000. Deal value in Europe grew 54% and North America 34%, while Asia-Pacific value rose 11%, held back by slower growth in China and a decline in Japan. Financial services deal value rose 92% and industrials 81%. Technology remained the largest sector at 33% of buyout value. Public-to-private transactions approached $250 billion globally, including Vista Equity Partners and Blackstone's $8.4 billion buyout of Smartsheet and KKR's acquisition of a 50% stake in Cotiviti from Veritas Capital at a valuation of around $10 billion.
Fundraising moved in the opposite direction. Bain describes LPs as concentrating allocations in the largest, most experienced funds with strong track records, while most other funds struggled. Bain attributes this to lagging distributions following the 2021 deal boom and the subsequent exit slowdown. Using a pattern it compares to the post-financial-crisis period, Bain says distributions have trailed contributions in five of the last six years. GPs have responded with minority stake sales, dividend recapitalizations, secondaries and NAV loans, which Bain says raised $410 billion, and 30% of buyout portfolio companies have experienced some form of liquidity event.
Financing conditions improved, though not uniformly. Syndicated loan issuance rose 83% to $110 billion, leveraged loan yields in the US fell 1.4 percentage points, and refinancing in the US and Europe rose almost 80% to around $380 billion. Average debt multiples remained at 4.9 times EBITDA, well below prepandemic levels. Average deal multiples rose to 11.9 times EBITDA in North America and a record 12.1 times in Europe, according to StepStone analysis cited by Bain. Private credit's share of middle-market loan issuance rose to 90% from 36% over the past decade. Bain also reports that coinvestment volume rose about 30% from pre-pandemic levels, though only half of LPs seeking coinvestment opportunities have been able to participate, per a StepStone survey of 145 GPs and 420 funds.
Go deeper than the headline
Research every firm in this story, track the ones that matter and get the daily briefing — free for 7 days.