Private equity fundraising up 12% to $133bn in first quarter of 2020

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Research provider Preqin indicated that 267 private equity (PE) funds raised a total of $133bn in capital commitments worldwide in the first quarter of 2020, compared to 395 PE funds that secured $188.3bn in the fourth quarter of 2019 and to 366 PE funds that raised $118.6bn in the first quarter of 2019. It noted that the outbreak of the coronavirus had a limited impact on global PE fundraising, as the decline in activity from the fourth quarter of 2019 is broadly in line with historical trends. Also, it said that 152 PE funds with a primary focus on North America secured $101bn in the first quarter of 2020, followed by 57 European-focused funds ($16.8bn), and 36 Asian-focused funds ($10bn). In parallel, Preqin indicated that there were 1,211 PE-backed buyout deals in the first quarter of 2020 for an aggregate amount of $93.6bn, compared to 1,161 deals worth $96.2bn in the fourth quarter of 2019 and to 1,372 deals totaling $112.5bn in the first quarter of 2019. It said that North America accounted for 58% of the total number of closed deals in the covered quarter, followed by Europe (30.5%), and Asia (7.4%). Further, it pointed out that there were 2,851 venture capital deals in the first quarter of 2020 for an aggregate amount of $49.6bn, down from 3,694 deals worth $60.6bn in the fourth quarter of 2019 and from 3,703 deals that totaled $56.5bn in the first quarter of 2019. It noted that deal activity in Greater China declined by 38.7% to 495 deals in the first quarter of 2020, while it regressed by 21.2% to 1,006 deals in North America and by 10.4% to 602 deals in Europe due to the coronavirus outbreak.

M&A deals down 28% to $882bn in the first quarter of 2020
Figures issued by Bureau Van Dijk and Zephyr show that there were 21,157 mergers & acquisition (M&A) deals targeting companies globally for a total of $882.3bn in the first quarter of 2020. In comparison, there were 26,086 M&A deals worldwide worth $1.22 trillion in the first quarter of 2019, while there were 26,679 M&A deals globally worth $1.2 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2019. The figures show a decline of 19% in the number of deals and a drop of 27.8% in their amount year-on-year, as well as a decrease of 20.7% in the number of deals and a decline of 26.2% in their amount quarter-on-quarter. The decline in both the number and value of M&A deals is due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on M&A activity. On a country level, the amount of M&A transactions in the United States reached $227.4bn and accounted for 25.8% of the aggregate deal value worldwide in the first quarter of 2020. China followed with M&A deals of $124.7bn (14.1%), then Germany with $68.4bn (7.7%), France with $51bn (5.8%), the United Kingdom with $49bn (5.6%), Ireland with $34.6bn (3.9%), and India with $26.5bn and Japan with $26.2bn (3% each). In parallel, the United States had 5,226 M&A deals in the covered quarter, followed by China with 2,877 transactions, the United Kingdom with 1,776 deals, Japan with 1,079 transactions, Germany with 934 deals, Canada with 846 transactions, Australia with 761 deals, and France with 636 transactions.