Research

Market at a Glance – Blackstone makes $8 bln deal

December 4 2017

U.S.-based buyout and mezzanine fundraising hit a lull, bringing in only $269 million since Buyouts last went to press. Thus far in 2017, private equity firms raised $192.7 billion, leading this time a year ago by $24.4 billion, or 14.5 percent.

Arrowroot Capital Management, the Santa Monica, California, growth equity firm focused on software companies in the lower-middle market, closed its debut fund on an oversubscribed $177 million.

Dealmaking made up for what fundraising lacked. Over the past two weeks, $19.4 billion in closed private equity-backed deals were conducted. The yearly aggregate now sits at $185.3 billion, ahead of 2016’s total by $46.1 billion, or 33.1 percent.

Of deals with disclosed value, a quartet reached the billion-dollar plateau.

The most prominent of those four was orchestrated by Blackstone Group. The powerhouse firm bought out Starwood Waypoint Homes, an owner and operator of single-family houses, for over $8.2 billion.

New Mountain Capital followed by acquiring VWR Corp, a wholesaler of medical equipment, for about $6.6 billion.

Rounding out the foursome were Vista Equity Partners and Siris Capital Group. Vista purchased the entire share capital of EAB Global Inc, an office administrative service provider, for almost $1.6 billion. Siris acquired IntraLinks Holdings Inc, a developer of content management software, for just a shade over $1 billion.