Private equity firms are faced with returning record levels of cash to their investors even though the value of their portfolios are rising faster, swollen by trillions of assets that they are struggling to sell.
Fund managers distributed $318bn to their limited partners as of June last year, and $330bn in 2011, through dividends and asset disposals, according to data compiled by pension fund adviser Hamilton Lane. This exceeded distributions in 2007 – $305bn – the peak of the leveraged buyout boom.
But payouts have shrunk as a percentage of private equity investments as firms have battled to dispose of companies acquired in mega-deals at the peak of the credit boom. Even with these record distributions, investors’ exposure to private equity is actually increasing.
This means investors stay close to their maximum allocation targets and therefore do not need to commit as much new money to reach those targets. The investors are looking to diversify their investment among new funds.
The value of all private equity holdings increased to more than $1.8tn last year, up from $1.73tn in 2011 and $938bn in 2007, largely helped by rising public stock markets, which fund managers use to evaluate assets.
As a result, annual distributions as a percentage of total net assets fell from 24 per cent in 2011 to 18 per cent in 2012. They represented 43 per cent of total assets in 2007 and 25 per cent on average since 2003.
The record pile of investments on the ground makes it difficult for private equity firms to raise new funds as investors wait for more distributions before committing fresh money.
Ted Koenig of Monroe Capital LLC, said: “The current overhang is unsustainable, given the nature of private-equity fund structures; firms lose the ability to invest this capital once their investment period runs out. At today’s deal flow pace, it would take around five years to invest the current overhang, which means that private-equity firms must start investing now at a much higher rate if they want to invest their full fund (and collect the fees and carry on those remaining commitments). These private-equity firms will try their hardest to put this capital to use, which should result in a plethora of M&A activity.”
Since the appetite for mega deals has cooled, what do you think they will be looking for? Primarily this: add-on or bolt-on companies to existing platforms. Keep in mind that many of these platform companies were acquired prior to the Great Recession hitting in 2009. As we saw a few days ago, add-ons as a percentage of deals closed grew to just under 50% of all deals equity firms invested in 2011. And according to Pitchbook’s latest data, add-ons broke the 50% barrier of all PE deals closed in 2012 for the first time ever.
Implications for Small to Mid-Size Business Owners
Many private equity groups are seeking to buy something specific that matches their buying criteria. If you are a business owner and/or major shareholder in a privately held company with cash flow of at least $500,000 annually and any of these following points apply to your situation contact me to discuss:
- You are considering your exit plan, either now, or over the foreseeable next couple of years
- Your company needs additional capital to grow
- Your company could benefit from having the additional resources of highly educated, accomplished, professional management
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