After two weak years, the private equity found Slash in 2024with significant growth in investments and an increase in the value of exit. However, the sector is still faced with structural challengesBetween uncertainties Macroeconomic and a complex fundraising, as highlighted by the Bain & Company Global Private Equity Report.
The numbers of 2024
The global private equity market has in fact recorded a clear rebound in 2024. The overall value of buyout operations is grown by 37%, reach 602 billion dollars (excluding add-on deals). Also the market of Exit showed positive signals, with a increase of 34% in the total value of operations (468 billion dollars) and an increase of 22% in the number of deal (1,470 transactions). This improvement marks a first step towards the normalization of the market, after a period in which the poor liquidity had slowed down the distribution of capital to the limited partners, leaving the General Partners with 29,000 companies from which to exit.
Challenges and opportunities globally for 2025
Despite the positive signals, the sustainability of the recovery It will depend on the ability of the sector to face a macroeconomic context still uncertain. Inflation, interest rates, commercial policies and geopolitical tensions remain determining factors for the future of private equity. The report found that i costs To generate higher yields to the market they are increasing. The competition for operations maintains high evaluation multiples, while the increase in the cost of the debt makes it more difficult to create value through the financial lever.
Europe at the head of the second half
Geographically, the growth was guided by Europe, where the value of the operations increased by 54%, reaching 212 billion dollars. The number of operations grew by 9%, while the evaluation multiples in Western Europe reached record levels (12:1x). The European market has seen a strong increase of exitwith an increase of 28% (145 billion dollars), supported by a boom in the sponsor-to-sponsor operations, which grew globally by 157% (63 billion dollars). However, liquidity remains a critical node: the percentage of capital returned to investors touched 11%, the lowest level since the times of the crisis of 2008-2009.
Private Equity in Italy
In 2024, the Italian market dEl Private Equity showed the traditional signals of solidityrecording a slight increase in the number of operations compared to 2023. About 50% of the Deals concerned Add-on operations In support of buy and build strategies, while direct investments-excluding add-ons-were just over 200, with only sixty operations on companies with Ebitda over 10 million euros. THE more dynamic sectors, With double -digit growth in the number of deal, they were IBEni of consumeri professional and financial servicesand the sector energysupported by the interest in the energy transition. After the strong acceleration of 2021-2023, the Weight of Tech operations has returned to 10% of the total, a value in line with the pre-pandemic period, probably not for lack of interest but rather for the limited number of deals available.
On the exit front, 2024 saw a positive rebound with a 15% increase compared to the previous year, thanks to a more stable macroeconomic context and the resumption of secondary buyouts. However, to consolidate this tendency, the return of trust will also be crucial towards tools such as the prices on the stock exchange (IPO). In confirmation of the vitality of the sector, we mapped about 1,000 Italian companies in portfolio to private equity funds. These realities, with an average Ebitda of 24 million euros in 2023, confirms resilient and over-contracts, having recorded an average annual growth of the turnover of 9% and of the Ebita of 13% in the period 2019-2023.
