piotrk

See the accompanying table to see which private equity firms were hiring in the first quarter of 2015.

TPG Capital and PAI Partners lead the way in generating the highest cash-on-cash returns for Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System’s portfolio as of June 30. 

A lot of portfolio companies are showing their age, according to PitchBook research on about 7,800 U.S.-based portfolio companies. True, a shade over half of the deals date from within the past five years. But more than a third date from the 2005-2009 period, and more than 10 percent are even older.

It’s getting harder and harder to find good deals. So once sponsors do find companies they like they are holding on to them for longer than in the past. Six years was the median hold period for U.S. portfolio companies last year among nearly 7,800  looked at by data provider PitchBook.

The private equity markets continued to cruise in 2015 as deal-making and fundraising both kept charging ahead toward the end of the first quarter. Over the past two weeks, deals done by U.S.-based buyout and mezzanine firms have added nearly $11 billion to the year-to-date total. As it currently sits, the 2015 sum is about $13 billion ahead of where it was at this point in time last year.  

Vintage-2007 funds are aging like fine wine for the New Jersey Division of Investment. The most recent data from the state reveals that four of the top five distributing funds from February 2014 to November of 2014 date from 2007 and generated over $230 million in returns in that 9-month span alone. 

Dry powder totaled $535 billion as of June 30, 2014 in the United States, and more than a quarter of it (28 percent) comes from vintage-2014 funds, according to PitchBook Data Inc. Add in leverage and we’re talking about well over a trillion dollars in spending power. It’s a great time to raise money. But will it prove to be a case of too much money chasing too few deals?

The final quarter of the year was a strong one for M&A in the United States and Europe, finishing with more than $400 billion in transaction value and 3,777 deals, according to data provider PitchBook Data Inc.  Tailwinds included a reasonably strong economic recovery in the United States and easy credit. For the year the figures were nearly $1.3 trillion in transaction value and 17,357 deals, up from $1 trillion and 15,453 deals in 2013.

A former executive with WL Ross & Co is suing the private equity firm to force it to open its books and records to him, the Wall Street Journal reported. 

It continues to be a big year in private equity fundraising and deal-making. In the past two weeks, fundraising by U.S.-based buyout and mezzanine firms has resumed its torrid start as firms added nearly a full $8 billion to their war chests. The year-to-date sum is about $14.5 billion ahead of this point in time in 2014.