Top 5 largest funds of all time

Raising an impressive €8.5bn since it launched Advent International GPE VII back in March this year, the GP's efforts clearly indicate there is still an appetite among LPs for large leveraged buyout funds. While market commentators have claimed investors are more interested in liquid investments with reliable yields, the private equity model is evidently still desirable and something LPs do want to allocate to.

Advent managing director James Brocklebank told unquote": "Our assessment of the market today is that there is around half the amount of capital available to GPs as there was in the last cycle."

With such a steep drop in the amount of cash around for fundraising, Advent's relatively quick fundraising suggests that LPs are focusing their commitments on fewer fund managers today, rather than making smaller commitments to the same number of vehicles.

While Advent's fund is the biggest for years, it doesn't quite make it into our top five biggest funds of all time...

5) Blackstone Capital Partners VI – Blackstone's sixth fund dragged on considerably, and eventually closed at $16bn at the beginning of this year. The fund was notorious for cutting its huge $20bn target to a more modest $15bn, though it eventually finished slightly above the revised target.

4) KKR Fund 2006 – The US giant's pre-crash fund saw a lengthy fundraise, finally closing in March 2008 after launching in June 2006. KKR raised $17.6bn and primarily raised from large North American pension funds.

3) CVC European Equity Partners V – Launched in February 2008, in less than 12 months CVC's fifth fund reached final close slightly below its €12.1bn target at €11bn. Given that Lehman Brothers collapsed in the middle of fundraising, CVC decided to cut its losses and bring the fund to a close before the end of the year.

2) TPG Partners VI - TPG's sixth fund also took the decision to close just below target as the banking industry collapsed. In September 2008 it closed the vehicle on $19.8bn, just slightly off its $20bn target.

1) GS Capital Partners VI - This fund just beats TPG's effort by actually making it to the $20bn target. So, while three of the world's biggest buyout players attempted the ambitious $20bn goal, only one succeeded. Timing was probably on Goldman Sachs' side on this one, having started fundraising in September 2006, it held a final close in April 2007, just as concerns about US sub-prime mortgage debt were being raised.

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• Topics
• Funds
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• Advent International
• KKR
• Blackstone Group
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