European private equity fundraising hits eight-year high at €74.5 billion, investments and exits remain strong, 2016 Invest Europe data shows.

In the last four years, European private equity funds have raised over €240 billion to invest into companies in Europe — more than twice the amount raised in the four years following the financial crisis, 2009 to 2012. Pension funds accounted for over a third of capital raised in 2016.

Consumer goods and services in Europe received the largest amount of private equity investment last year, at 28% of the total — a 23% year-on-year increase for the sector. The technology sector (communications, computing and electronics) received a fifth of the annual investment, as did business-to-business products and services.

The total amount of equity invested in European companies remained stable at €53.7bn compared to 2015, representing the second highest level since 2008. The number of companies decreased by 7%, but remained over 5,900. 83% of them are SMEs.

Venture capital investment increased by 4% to €4.4bn compared to 2015. Over 3,000 companies received investment, a reduction of 7% which indicates a trend towards larger financing rounds. ICT (communications, computer and electronics) was the largest sector at 45% of total venture capital investment by amount, followed by biotech and healthcare (27%) and consumer goods and services (9%). Buyout investment remained stable at €37.3bn.

The 2016 European Private Equity Activity report covers activity on over 1,200 firms, directly verified by the fund managers. Together with national private equity associations across the continent, Invest Europe has developed the most comprehensive database of European private equity statistics, which holds data from over 3,000 European private equity firms on 7,000 funds, 60,000 portfolio companies and 200,000 transactions since 2007.

Download the latest statistics in the link below. 

Zdroj: https://www.investeurope.eu/research/activity-data/annual-activity-statistics/