{"text":[[{"start":8.25,"text":"Private equity’s biggest players are driving a fundraising revival that has left smaller firms trailing, with the market seized by a winner-takes-all dynamic."}],[{"start":17.85,"text":"Global fundraising surpassed $260bn in the first half of 2026, putting the private equity sector on track to raise 17 per cent more this year than last year, according to PitchBook. Funds raised $447bn in 2025."}],[{"start":34,"text":"But if the trend bears out for the rest of the year, the fundraising haul will be split across the smallest number of funds in more than a decade."}],[{"start":42.35,"text":"Some 310 vehicles closed funds during the first six months of the year, putting the full-year figure on course to shrink by about a quarter from the 830 that closed last year."}],[{"start":53.400000000000006,"text":"The data offers one of the clearest signs to date that money is flowing to the most established buyout firms while some of the smaller operators that emerged during the industry’s boom years are struggling to raise new capital."}],[{"start":66.05000000000001,"text":"Private equity fundraising fell in both 2024 and 2025, after costlier financing hit valuations and meant firms held off on selling investments. The failure to exit holdings meant firms returned less cash to their investors, who in turn had less to recycle into new funds. "}],[{"start":85.25000000000001,"text":"“Investors have still received less capital back than historical norms,” said Ed Gander, head of private funds in London at law firm Sidley Austin. “As there haven’t been as many distributions, there’s less appetite to look at new managers as there was four or five years ago.”"}],[{"start":101.95000000000002,"text":"Private equity funds targeting more than $1bn have captured more than 80 per cent of all money raised this year, their highest share in more than a decade of data."}],[{"start":null,"text":"
"}],[{"start":112.25000000000001,"text":"Since the start of January, KKR has finished fundraising a $23bn North American flagship buyout fund and EQT closed Asia Pacific’s biggest-ever private equity vehicle at about $16bn. Advent is close to raising $26bn for its flagship fund, according to a person familiar with the matter."}],[{"start":132.25,"text":"Private equity executives have warned that after the end of a period when cheap money made it easy to raise new funds, there are likely to be a growing number of “zombie firms” that operate to manage existing investments but cannot raise new funds."}],[{"start":148.65,"text":"If the number of funds to close continues to grow at the same pace until December, the global total for 2026 will reach just 620. That compares with more than 1,000 every year for eight years to 2024 and about 1,800 in two of those years."}],[{"start":166.45000000000002,"text":"Per Franzén, chief executive of Stockholm-listed buyout house EQT, last year predicted that 80 per cent of all private capital groups could be zombie firms within the next decade."}],[{"start":176.75000000000003,"text":"Advisers insist there will remain a role for some smaller firms even in a more challenging market. "}],[{"start":183.15000000000003,"text":"“Investors are still carving out allocations for specialist managers with distinct sector expertise,” said Tarun Patel of law firm Mayer Brown. “The market has just become more discerning.”"}],[{"start":201.80000000000004,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1783908431_2510.mp3"}