UK fundraising remains on the up despite Brexit jitters

According to unquote" data, private equity fund managers with UK headquarters have closed a total of 42 funds to date in 2017, collecting aggregate commitments of £44.4bn. This points towards a record year for fundraising, but also builds on the momentum that has been gathering again following a previous peak in 2013. Last year, UK fund managers had already achieved a post-crisis record of £54bn gathered across 56 final closes, following up from the 51 final closes for an aggregate of £39.5bn recorded in 2015. The 2016 figures in particular highlight that managers closed more funds in a single year, and raised more than twice as much capital, than they did over the 2011-2012 two-year period.

On the one hand, this is consistent with the wider European fundraising picture. H1 2017 has been strong across the board on the fundraising side, according to unquote" data, continuing a similar upward trend seen for the past three years as LPs pour increasing amounts of capital into the asset class. And this post-2011 upwards curve has also been driven in part by the natural cycle of managers that raised their previous vehicles in the 2005-2008 period returning to the fundraising trail.

But the UK has had to contend with a particularly rocky political landscape, from the initial jitters leading to the Brexit referendum vote, to the shock surprise of the result and the ensuing uncertainty as the country navigates its way towards the 2019 deadline. While this was expected to significantly cool down appetite for UK funds from international investors, the aforementioned figures seem to indicate that the cull on successful fundraises is yet to fully hit.

Mega-fund boost
The fundraising figures for 2016-2017 have of course been boosted by a number of mega-fundraises from UK-based global players – such as CVC closing CVC Capital Partners VII on its €15.5bn hard-cap in June this year, and Permira raising €7.5bn for its Permira VI fund in January. But the £100m-1bn bracket, which largely hosts managers with a much more domestic outlook, has also performed well. In fact, unquote" recorded a spike of 34 fund closes for an aggregate £13.7bn in this segment in 2016, and 2017 has already seen £8.9bn collected across 26 closes so far.

Looking ahead, the market is currently expecting closes in the coming months for a number of UK players on the road. This includes BC Partners (the owner of unquote" parent company Acuris) having already collected in excess of €6bn for its latest flagship fund, as well as Piper Private Equity, Palamon, Bridgepoint, RJD Partners, DN Capital and Apposite Capital, among others.

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• Topics
• Fundraising
• UK / Ireland
• United Kingdom
• CVC Capital Partners
• BC Partners
• Unquote Data