Chart of the week: Private equity industrials fundraising spikes in 2015

Total capital raised for industrials-focused closed-ended private equity funds has shot up following a steady decline since 2012

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Warburg Pincus this week appointed senior advisor Thomas Horton to its industrials and business services group, to support the firm’s growth in the aviation sector, as reported in Private Equity International. PEI’s Research & Analytics team have taken this opportunity to analyse the post-crisis development of closed-ended private equity fundraising targeting industrials.

Aggregate capital specifically targeting industrials increased year on year from $531.13 million in 2009 to $2.59 billion in 2012 before declining to $386.83 billion in 2014. In the first three quarters of 2015, $3.45 billion has been gathered, already more than eight times that collected last year.

Industrials vehicles targeting North America account for 98 percent of aggregate capital raised so far this year. The two largest funds to close were American Industrial Partners Capital Fund VI, which had collected $1.8 billion by final close in September, and Sterling Group Partners IV, which closed at $1.25 billion in July. Prior to 2015, Europe had dominated as the region of focus for industrial vehicles with $3.92 billion raised in total between 2009 and 2014, 39 percent higher than North American fundraising.

There are currently 13 industrial focused closed-ended private equity funds in market or coming to market targeting $2.74 billion. Vehicles with a global remit, investing into two or more regions, are targeting the most capital at $758.01 million.