Trade sales dominate 2022 exits; entries scarce in December 2022

S&P Global Market Intelligence offers our top picks of global private equity news stories and more published throughout the week.

In a challenging exit environment, private equity turned to strategic buyers to keep the deals flowing in 2022.

Trade sales were the dominant exit route in 2022, and the data suggests that private equity fund managers steered more deals to strategic buyers as other exit options narrowed. Trade sales accounted for more than 77% of overall exit value. That is a far larger proportion than any of the previous four years, when trade sales comprised between 46% and 55% of exits by value.

Exits via secondary sales were down over 61% year over year, and the drop-off in private equity-backed IPOs was greater than 68% as firms gave a wide berth to tanking public markets.

Global private equity exits overall fell to $391.44 billion, off more than 32% from their record high of $576.37 billion in 2021, according to preliminary full-year figures from Preqin Pro.

Dig more into the private equity exit trends of 2022.

CHART OF THE WEEK: Dry December

⮞ December was the slowest month for private equity entries in all of 2022, with just 957 new investments recorded globally.

⮞ Entries for the month totaled $38.99 billion, slightly higher than the totals logged in July 2022, September 2022 and October 2022.

⮞ Full-year data shows a clear drop-off in private equity entries in the second half of 2022, with five of the six lowest-value months and all six of the lowest-volume months for entries coming in the July-to-December 2022 period.

DEALS AND FUNDRAISING

* KKR & Co. Inc. committed a further $1.15 billion to expand its global leased commercial aircraft portfolio in partnership with Altavair LP. The investment will come from the private equity giant's credit and infrastructure funds. Altavair, backed by KKR, is an aviation finance company.

* Pension fund CalPERS is providing TPG Capital LP and GCM Grosvenor with a $500 million allocation each to their respective funds, TPG NEXT and Elevate. The funds are aimed at identifying and supporting the next generation of investor entrepreneurs in private markets.

* The Carlyle Group Inc. acquired a majority stake in India-based skincare and beauty platform VLCC Health Care Ltd. Funds managed and advised by affiliates of Carlyle Asia Partners LP will provide equity for the deal.

* Blue Owl Capital Inc. closed its Dyal Capital Partners V fund with capital commitments of $12.9 billion. The fund intends to invest in approximately 20 diversified private equity firms.

* Ares Management Corp. raised roughly $5.0 billion at the final close of its Infrastructure Debt Fund V. The fund will invest across the digital, utilities, renewables, energy and transportation markets.

ELSEWHERE IN THE INDUSTRY

* Vista Equity Partners Management LLC is buying Duck Creek Technologies Inc., an insurance technology provider. The all-cash deal worth roughly $2.6 billion is expected to close during the second quarter.

* General Atlantic Service Co. LP purchased a 5.64% ownership stake in PT Cisarua Mountain Dairy Tbk, or Cimory, for $130 million. The Indonesian company produces dairy products and consumer foods.

* One Equity Partners completed the acquisition of a controlling stake in Mythics Inc. and its unit Emergent LLC.

* HKW purchased IT managed service provider franchiser CMIT Solutions Inc. from Craftsman Capital Partners. HKW also acquired managed service provider HTW Inc.

FOCUS ON: HEALTHCARE

* Inflexion is making a minority investment in Proteros biostructures GmbH, a contract research organization specializing in early-stage drug discovery. The deal is expected to close during the first quarter.

* Trend Health Partners LLC, which offers credit balance management and payment accuracy solutions for healthcare payers and providers, received a capital injection from Lone View Capital Management LP.

* Triton Pacific Capital Partners LLC provided capital to Integrated Pain Associates PLLC, a minimally invasive spine and pain platform. Other participants in the transaction included Florac Investissements SAS and Star Mountain Capital LLC.