PE Pulse: five takeaways from 1Q 2023

PE Pulse is a quarterly report and corresponding podcast miniseries that provides analysis and insights on private equity market activity and trends.

Visit https://www.ey.com/pepulse to view this quarter’s summary and infographic.  

Macro headwinds continue to be top of mind for PE and make the operating and deployment environment challenging for PE firms.

However, PE is better suited today to manage volatility than it has ever been before. Firms have more capital at their disposal and moreover, have diversified in ways that increase their resilience and flexibility, such as adding new asset classes. Most importantly, the sector as a whole has expanded its operating toolkit by building deep sector and functional expertise.

Key takeaways:

1. In the first quarter of we saw firms announce deals valued at US$92b.
2. In an average year, take-private deals might represent 20% of total PE activity by value. Last year, as stock prices fell, it was about 40%; first quarter of this year - 80% of PE activity by value was deployed in take-privates transactions.
3. Around US$500b in debt is maturing for portcos over the next 2.5 years.
4. Fundraising has become more challenging for PE’s core institutional market where funds raised by PE shops fell 14% in the first quarter.

For your convenience, full text transcript of this podcast is also available. Read the transcript.