Our Private Equity Group provides trusted counsel derived from deep industry knowledge to established as well as up-and-coming private equity firms. We represent firms of every size across the spectrum of investment strategies, and we build long-standing relationships with our clients. As active participants in the private equity industry, we are able to advise our clients on the latest innovations, as well as current market practices and trends.
January 2015 Private Equity Digest
January 22, 2015 download PDF
In this edition of the Paul, Weiss Private Equity Digest, we look at the recent Delaware Court of Chancery case Cigna v. Audax, which has implications for private merger transactions, and discuss possible solutions to the issues raised by this decision.
In market news, sponsor-related M&A activity in the U.S. was down last month to end the year, reflecting a general cooling in the overall M&A market. U.S. sponsor-related M&A activity by number of deals has been on a downward trend since October 2014 but total dollar value ended the year up significantly from October 2014. Global sponsor-related M&A activity is more mixed, with total dollar value increasing approximately 12% from November to December, while the number of deals stayed relatively flat. U.S. sponsor-backed exits was similarly mixed. While the number of exits stayed the same from November 2014 to December 2014, the total dollar value of such exits fell approximately 27% during the same period.
U.S. private equity fundraising saw a significant decline in dollar value to $6.4 billion in December 2014, from $15.2 billion in November 2014 and a stellar $34 billion in October 2014. A similar trend is shown with the number of funds closed, with 16 funds closing in December 2014, as compared to 17 funds closed in November 2014 and 29 funds closed in October 2014.