Yet more data rolls in to suggest that last year was a vibrant one in terms of liquidity events – this time figures for private equity buyout exits.

Yet more data rolls in to suggest that last year was a vibrant one in terms of liquidity events – this time figures for private equity buyout exits.

According to Preqin, a firm which tracks private equity and other alternative investments such as hedge funds, 2014 represented the highest ever aggregate exit value for private equity buyout fund managers, with a total of 1,604 exits globally valued at $428 billion.

That figure is up by 30 per cent on the total value of exits in 2013, and is the highest ever annual value of private equity-backed buyout exits. The figures come hard on the heels of data – provided exclusively to this publication by WealthMonitor – showing a general increase in initial public offerings and M&A deals, both of which are important wealth-generating events that private bankers will be keen to tap into. (See here.)

“A primary consequence of the exit activity has been the record level of capital being distributed to investors. Full-year distributions for 2013 by buyout fund managers hit a record $226bn. As of the end of June 2014, the latest data available, buyout funds already had returned $224bn to investors, meaning 2014 is set to be a record year,” the firm said.

“The $11.5 billion merger between Tim Hortons, Inc. and 3G Capital-backed Burger King and was the largest private equity-backed buyout deal in 2014, and the trade sale of Alliance Boots GmbH to Walgreen Co. for $15 billion was the year’s largest private equity-backed exit,” it continued.

The surge in exits means a significant increase in the level of capital being returned to buyout fund investors, which had almost surpassed the full-year 2013 amount as of June 2014 (the latest data available).

Preqin said the total value of deals in 2014 reached $332 billion globally, the highest annual amount since 2007.

Among other takeaways from the Preqin  report were that in 2014 there were 3,423 private equity-backed buyout deals announced globally with an aggregate value of

$332 billion, representing the highest aggregate deal value since 2007 and a 10 per cent increase on the level seen in 2013.

North America saw $181 billion of deals in 2014, a 2 per cent fall on the aggregate value in the previous year despite an 11 per cent rise in number of deals to 1,899.

The total value of deals in Asia in 2014 ($42 billion) was 68 per cent higher than the 2013 figure, compared to a 16 per cent drop in number of deals in the region to 270 in 2014.

Fall in public-to-private deals

The figures did show a sharp fall in the number of publically listed firms going off the stock market: the aggregate value of public-to-private transactions, in deal value terms, accounted for 10 per cent of the total, from 30 per cent in 2013.

Small-cap investments valued at under $250 million accounted for 68 per cent of the number of private equity deals announced globally in 2014, down from 76 per cent in 2013. Deals in the mid-market range ($250 million - $1 billion) comprised 24 per cent of all deals in 2014, compared to 18 per cent in the previous year.