Pitchbook has reported on a decade of private equity investments in a four-part series focusing on investments, fundraising, exits and fund returns.   The highlights are illuminating of the period from 2001 through 2010, with the unsurprising peak in 2007 and drop thereafter.   

Highlights from the investments portion of the report include the following:

  • The decade saw 17,361 private equity deals totaling $1.73 trillion of invested capital.
  • Lower middle-market companies accounted for 81% of the decade’s deal flow .
  • The median private equity investment multiple peaked at 11.5x in 2008.
  • The average time between investments dropped from six months in 2002 to 2½ months in 2007.
  • Add-on deals accounted for 46% of PE buyouts by the end of the decade.
  • Texas saw more PE deals and invested capital than any other state.
  • Business Products and Services was the top industry for PE activity.

Pitchbook is an independent research firm  providing data, news and analysis to the private equity industry, with a variety of online and other products.