Busy putting together the daily e-mail (sign up here), but wanted to share some new Q3 private equity fund-raising data from Preqin.
The research firm reports that 81 funds held a final close in Q3, raising an aggregate of $57 billion. That’s a small bump from the $49 billion in Q2, and Preqin says to expect a further increase “as further information becomes available.”
Leading the way were U.S.-focused funds, which raised $41.2 billion. Europe came in place with $8.3 billion, while the rest of the world (including Asia) showed with $7.8 billion.
In terms of fund-type, buyout funds raised the most capital with $20.4 billion. This includes $13.5 billion for Blackstone Capital Partners VI, which leads us to an important point about Preqin fund-raising data:
It attributes all funds raised to the quarter in which a final close occurred. Blackstone, for example, had spent around two years raising its fund — and closed on most of the $13.5 billion long ago. This methodology is different from that of other data providers like Dow Jones and Thomson Reuters, so expect some discrepancies when their numbers are released.