EUROPE - No end in sight for large buyouts

т€Deal sizes are increasing more quickly than fund sizes,т€ said John Barber, managing partner at Citi Private Equity at a luncheon today. Though more prevalent in the US than in Europe, the phenomenon should allow the record fundraisings to find suitable deployment opportunities. He pointed out that the global т€˜bubbleт€™ witnessed in 2000 was on the back of a glut of venture funds raised, whereas the record funds being closed today are mostly in the buyout universe. т€œUnlike buyouts, venture capital is not very scaleable. So the 2000 bust was largely down to venture.т€ According to data from unquoteт€ database Private Equity Insight, there were 42 European mega-deals (enterprise value of EUR 1bn or more) completed in 2006, and already two dozen in the first half of this year.