Private equity has accounted for 75 per cent of all merger and acquisition activity in the UK between January and September 2010.
According to research from the Centre for Management Buy-out Research (CMBOR) at Nottingham University's Business School, this record level took the value of private equity deals from £4.7 billion in 2009 to £18.2 billion this year.
It also highlighted the tenacity of private equity firm bosses who returned to dealmaking far more quickly than many other sector heads.
The major factor behind the record levels was the return of deals worth more than £100 million. In 2009, there were just 11 of these deals, compared to almost 40 this year. The total number of buy-outs sat at 164 this year, as opposed to 122 in 2009.
The largest buy-out deal to take place this year was the £2.9 billion deal to take-private engineer Tomkins.
Markets leader for Europe, Middle East, India and Africa at Ernst & Young, Sachin Date, said, “It is still early to call whether private equity is fully recovered from the crisis.
“But it is encouraging that activity levels are back up again, and I expect that to continue next year,” he added.
