The record-setting pace of distributions from U.S. buyout funds will slow down this year, according to a poll of peHUB readers.

Cambridge Associates reports that limited partners received $93.6 billion from U.S. buyout funds in 2011, the largest annual amount it has recorded since it began tracking the data in 1986. Will the record distributions continue this year?

For all the private equity firms waiting – patiently and impatiently – for limited partners’ moods to improve, the wait is over. According to a new LP survey by Preqin, the private equity data firm, LPs are moving squarely off neutral and into high-gear in terms of committing new funds.

More than three times as many LPs, about 46 percent of Preqin’s respondents, said they planned to increase the amount of capital that they commit to private equity during 2011, as compared to 13 percent who said they planned to reduce their commitment levels. And of those LPs who planned to commit more in 2011, about two in every five said they said they planned to increase their commitments “significantly.”

The Preqin results echo another recent study – this one by Coller Capital – which reported that more than twice as many LPs planned to increase their target allocations to private equity in 2011, as compared to those who planned to decrease their allocations. The Preqin results were more profound, revealing that more than three times as many LPs planned to increase their target allocations to PE over the next 12 months as those that planned to decrease them.

Venture capitalists are generally an optimistic bunch, so it’s no surprise that for 2011 they foresee a better IPO landscape and lucrative acquisition deals. But what I found interesting in a handful of forecasts submitted by GPs was this: They see excited LPs willing to invest more aggressively in venture funds. What a turnabout that [...]

Angel fundraising continues at a pretty good clip, but one angel says he isn’t interested in participating. At least not yet. “We’ve kind of contemplated it,” says super angel Marcus Ogawa, managing partner of Quest Venture Partners. But “I’m a little hesitant to do an LP-based fund.” That’s because the financial incentive isn’t there. Why [...]