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UK buyout rankings: who invested the most in Q1

Identifying the most active investors
Top 10 most active GPs
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Unquote tallies the top 10 most active GPs across the UK buyout space in an exceptionally busy first quarter.

The UK buyout market is truly back in full swing, according to preliminary figures from Unquote's proprietary database. Fuelled by pent-up appetite to invest on the PE side, as well as a rush for vendors to complete deals before a potential capital gains tax (CGT) hike in the March budget, the market saw a record volume of buyouts in the first quarter.

In terms of dealflow, Carlyle secured top spot after a deals-rich first quarter in which the GP inked four buyouts in the UK: these notably included video games developer Jagex and fashion retailer End Clothing. Inflexion Private Equity and Bridgepoint also had a busy start to the year, even by their usually high standards, with three deals each (Inflexion additionally made a number of minority deals in that period).

A slightly unusual sighting is Astorg, which took second spot with three UK deals in the first quarter, including a £430m bid for data automation software developer Xceptor. While the GP is usually associated with France – its country of origin – it has increasingly focused on the UK in recent months. According to Unquote Data, six out of the eight deals done by the GP since the start of 2019 have been UK-based.

Methodology: the following tables comprise buyout deals (structured through a newco) of a UK-headquartered company, where the sponsor secured a controlling interest, and announced between January and March 2021. All aggregate values are based on disclosed enterprise values (when available) and estimated enterprise values (based on internal estimates, media reports and other sources) of the deals announced in the period.

Top 10 most active GPs by number of investments

Click on the GP's name to access their full profile on Unquote Data, including a list of their recent deals.

Sponsor No. of deals Value of deals (€m)
Carlyle Group 4

1,600
Astorg Partners 3

936
Inflexion Private Equity 3

515
Bridgepoint 3

203
TDR Capital 2

693
THI Investments 2

187
Great Hill Partners 2

167
G Square Capital 2

127
Intermediate Capital Group 2

109
Bridges Fund Management 2

96


Note: a number of GPs were tied on two transactions each, before the sorting by aggregate value was applied. Other firms that inked two majority buyout deals across the period were LDC, Elaghmore, Tenzing, H2 Equity Partners, Ethos Partners, Foresight, NVM Private Equity, and BCF Equity Partners.

Top 10 most active GPs by aggregate value of investments

Click on the GP's name to access their full profile on Unquote Data, including a list of their recent deals.

Sponsor No. of deals Value of deals (€m)
Blackstone Group 1

3,340 est
Nordic Capital 1

1,652 est
BC Partners 1

1,385 est
Carlyle Group 3

1,376
Astorg Partners 3

936
TDR Capital 2

693
Inflexion Private Equity 3

515
HIG Capital 1

461
Clayton Dubilier & Rice 1

342
AlpInvest Partners 1

254


All data sourced from Unquote Data as of 12 April 2021. If you would like to bring transactions to our attention, please get in touch

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