Mirroring the positive trends displayed by their global peers, EMEA-based GPs deployed 87% more capital from the start of July to the end of August.
According to a new report from S&P Global Market Intelligence, EMEA-based GPs’ capital investment amounted to €24.1bn across 537 new deals, compared to the same period in 2016.
New investments into cross-border targets surpassed capital deployed into local targets by €8.6bn, standing at €16.3bn across 141 new deals. A high proportion of this activity was attributed to a single deal when United Capital Partners and others acquired Essar Oil Ltd for €11.4bn. This is the largest transaction completed by EMEA GPs in the study period, and the largest since 2015.
Removing the outlier deal, investments into foreign targets stood at €5bn while EMEA-based companies attracted €7.8bn across 396 new deals. Like their global peers, EMEA PE firms were most interested in investing into the UK out of all sub-regions globally. Total allocated capital to UK-based targets reached €5.3bn in the 2017 focus period, a steep progression from €1.3bn over the same timeframe in 2016.
Elsewhere, the aggregate value of EMEA GPs’ exits from global targets experienced a slightly negative trend. During the 2017 July-August period, total capital released from the exits reached €24.1bn – representing a 10% drop in total capital realisations, across 20% fewer deals. Interestingly, France and the UK recorded the largest uplift in capital realisation from exits compared to 2016 numbers, reaching €7.9bn and €7.6bn respectively.
The venture capital (VC) space also reflected positive movements similar to the broader PE industry. EMEA-based VC firms deployed a total of €2.8bn new capital into global targets during our focus period, a 60% increase from 2016, across 257 new deals.
This article is an excerpt from the EMEA Private Equity Market Snapshot, a quarterly review of the private equity market from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
To access the full report click here.