Private-Equity Firms and Their Bankers Race to Handle Deal Surge

A Covid-muted 2020 gave way to a tidal wave of potential mergers and acquisitions this year that has private-equity firms, their advisers and investment bankers racing to keep up with the crush of deals.

“Things are pretty crazily busy across the whole market,” said Justin Abelow, a managing director in investment bank Houlihan Lokey Inc.’s financial sponsors group. “The market is on fire.”

A report by JP Morgan published last week suggested that fundraising could slow. “Dry powder” – money raised by private equity groups but which they have not yet spent – reached an all-time high at the end of 2020 as investors like pension funds and insurers struggled to find investments yielding a good enough return.

The bank’s analysts wrote: “There could be some reversal away from the cheap-credit, low-volatility environment that we have seen in recent years which has highly benefited private equity markets, towards a higher volatility environment with an increased cost of long-term funding.” That might suggest the days of easy money for private equity may be numbered.

Source: WSJ

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