U.S. Private Equity Fundraising Falls 81% in First Quarter

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 3, 2009 - 8:22am.

New York - As the economic crisis continued during the first quarter of 2009, U.S. private equity firms raised 81% less than the same period a year ago, according to new figures from Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst.

During the first three months of this year, 57 private equity funds raised just $15.5 billion, down from 134 funds raising $82.7 billion in the first quarter of 2008.

It was the lowest quarterly amount raised since 2004.

"As expected, private equity fund-raising in the first quarter proved very difficult," said Jennifer Rossa, the managing editor of Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst.

"Due to declines in other parts of their portfolios, many investors have passed their private equity target allocations, so they are taking a wait-and-see approach before committing more capital to the asset class.

"They are also waiting to see just how poor the performance of their existing private equity investments will be this year."

Related Links:
http://privateequity.dowjones.com