Private Markets Surge Amid Structural Shifts | Weekly Pulse

Must Know: Record Deal Activity Signals Private Markets Renaissance

Bottom Line: 

• Electronic Arts' $55 billion leveraged buyout—the largest LBO in history—marks a watershed moment for private markets, with JPMorgan committing $20 billion in financing and signaling renewed appetite for mega-deals as institutional capital flows accelerate across credit, equity, and infrastructure strategies.

Why It Matters:

• 📊 JPMorgan's $20 billion debt commitment represents the largest ever by a single bank for an LBO, demonstrating traditional banks are competing aggressively with the $1.7 trillion private credit industry

• 💰 Emerging markets private credit deployed $11.7 billion in H1 2025, nearly matching all of 2024's activity, with heavyweights like Blackstone and Apollo expanding globally

• 🏗️ Meta Platforms selected Pimco and Blue Owl to lead $29 billion financing for data center expansion, highlighting infrastructure as the next major battleground for private capital

• 🔄 Secondary deal activity surpassed $100 billion in the first half of 2025, putting the market on pace for a record year with 13 funds amassing $47.2 billion through August

Big Picture:

• 🔄 Private credit fundraising has slowed to just 10% of alternative asset inflows through July, forcing managers to innovate with insurance-focused structures and retail products

• ⚖️ London dropped out of the top 20 IPO markets globally, with volume falling 69% to $248 million, pushing more companies toward private capital and delaying exits

• 🎯 Alternative asset managers are exploring adding private assets to existing target-date funds, potentially unlocking access to $12.5 trillion in American retirement savings

• 📈 Private capital assets are projected to surge from $13 trillion to over $30 trillion in the next five years, fundamentally transforming how companies access capital

Trends to Watch

• 📈 Time to raise traditional institutional funds reached a record 23 months, up from about a year in 2021, forcing firms to pivot toward insurance and retail capital sources

• 🏦 Close to a third of US life insurers' $5.6 trillion in assets were allocated to private debt as of last year, up from 22% a decade ago

• 🔀 Private credit CLO issuance reached $30 billion in 2025, already outpacing last year and on track to hit an all-time high of $50 billion by year-end

• ⏳ Golub Capital sold a CLO locking investors into original terms for eight years with a 10-year reinvestment period, marking the first long-duration CLO since 2008

• 🌏 India recorded multiple private credit deals as Prime Minister Modi's infrastructure push increases funding demand for solar power, roads, and corporate expansion

• ⚠️ Private credit firms provided First Brands its last $250 million infusion before the company filed bankruptcy with over $10 billion in liabilities

• 🔍 The US Government Accountability Office is assessing risks posed by private credit in a report expected this spring, examining interconnections with the broader financial system

• 🎓 Elite US colleges including Brown and Northwestern are increasingly turning to secondary markets to raise cash from frozen private equity investments amid federal funding halts

• 💸 Rapid private markets growth has sparked data vendor fee increases of up to 40%, with providers adopting a "take it or leave it" approach to contract negotiations

• 📉 Private equity fundraising slump deepened through September 2025, with just $310 billion raised globally in the first three quarters—well behind last year's pace

• 🌊 84% of secondary buyers raised larger funds than their predecessors, with 32% indicating their latest funds were more than 50% larger

• 🏛️ Private wealth investors now represent 22% of Ardian's $30 billion ninth secondary fund, nearly doubling from 11% in their 2020 vintage

Industry Insights: Strategy & Outlook

• 💡 KKR partner Alisa Wood noted there are 19,000 private equity funds in the US versus 14,000 McDonald's locations, highlighting industry saturation where manager selection matters more than asset allocation

• 🎯 Insurance companies are great holders of illiquidity but not credit risk, as downgrades require significantly more capital reserves, according to Blackstone's Phil Sherrill

• 📉 Texas Municipal Retirement System's Yup Kim warned that "using yesterday's playbook for tomorrow is not going to get you to a good place" and flagged 2021 as a potentially terrible vintage year

• 🌐 GIC adviser Jeffrey Jaensubhakij noted that despite Asia's growth, it hasn't translated to outperformance in private markets, with pricing heavily dependent on public market conditions

• 💸 Mercer Alternatives' Wen Ting Geok said private credit and infrastructure secondaries trade at 5-10% discounts, venture funds around 20%, and real estate funds at roughly 30% discounts

• ⚡ Brookfield Asset Management's Hadley Peer Marshall estimates about $7 trillion of investment is needed to finance AI's rapid growth

• 🔐 Manager selection premium exceeds 1,400 basis points between top-tier and mediocre private equity managers, compared to just 200-300 basis points in public equities

• 💰 "Secondaries have certainly been one bright spot from a fundraising perspective," said Jared Davidson, partner at Asante Capital Group

• 🎯 "The best returns come from those years when you're emerging from a crisis," said Anthony Shontz, partner at Partners Group

• 📊 Apollo's $700 billion credit business focuses predominantly on investment grade lending in a $40 trillion market, challenging perceptions about private credit

Deal Spotlight: Transactions & Strategies

• 🎮 Electronic Arts agreed to a $55 billion leveraged buyout led by Silver Lake, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners, with JPMorgan committing $20 billion in financing

• 🍦 PAI Partners amassed €3.6 billion in new equity for its ice cream venture Froneri with Nestle, with Abu Dhabi Investment Authority investing €1.4 billion, valuing the business at €15 billion including debt

• 🏟️ Maple Park Capital Partners invested about $30 million in Prep Network, a platform focused on collegiate athlete recruitment

• ⚡ Blackstone structured a $7 billion equity investment in a natural gas plant, planning to repackage equity into senior and junior notes for its credit funds

• 🏗️ Meridiam closed its North American infrastructure fund with more than $1.8 billion to capitalize on U.S. state efforts to upgrade roads, airports and power grids

• 💰 TPG and Qatar Investment Authority offered to buy out Kangji Medical Holdings in a deal valuing the Chinese medical device maker at about $1.4 billion

• 🔬 Blackstone, Warburg Pincus and Nordic Capital are among bidders looking to invest in French diagnostics provider Sebia, valued at around €5 billion

• 🇮🇳 Investors including Ares, Cerberus, Davidson Kempner and Farallon provided $3.4 billion to India's Shapoorji Pallonji Group

Fundraising Focus: Capital Formation

• 💰 CVC Capital Partners amassed €10.4 billion for its fourth European Direct Lending vehicle, demonstrating continued institutional appetite for established managers

• 🏦 Apollo is set to use a rare structure to raise $10 billion from insurers, after building a roughly $5 billion vehicle called Fox Hedge

• 💰 Ardian raised roughly $30 billion for its ninth main secondary pool with private wealth investors representing 22% of the total—up from 11% in 2020

• 🎯 Apollo Global Management closed a debut $5.4 billion secondary offering focused on midsize transactions typically under $1 billion

• 💼 Painswick Capital Management raised $1.5 billion for its debut fund backing investments in single-asset secondary deals

• 🎯 Ares hiked its target for raising capital from wealthy individuals by 2028 by $25 billion to $125 billion, generating $800 million of fees

• 🌏 Indies Capital Partners raised over $300 million for its fourth private credit fund, more than double its predecessor

• 💼 Dan Loeb's Third Point closed on a $400 million insurance solutions fund, marking its first rated private credit vehicle for insurance companies

• 📉 Private equity fundraising totaled just $310 billion globally through September 2025, well behind last year's pace

• 🌊 Wellington Management raised $194 million for a fund focused on investing in majority equity portions of Wellington-managed CLOs

Market Spotlight: Regional Developments

• 🇬🇧 London Crisis: Volume down 69% to $248 million—the weakest in more than 35 years—as KKR has made takeover approaches to at least three companies this year

• 🇺🇸 Retirement Revolution: President Trump signed an executive order empowering employers to add alternative investments to workplace retirement plans, potentially unlocking $12.5 trillion

• 🇬🇧 Pension Expansion: Aviva is doubling private markets exposure for pensioners in default funds to 20-25%, up from about 10%

• 🇮🇳 India Acceleration: India recorded its largest private credit deals to date with Apollo providing $750 million for Mumbai's airport alongside the Shapoorji Pallonji transaction

• 🇨🇳 China Reopening: European pension funds and endowments are exploring private equity investments in China after years of shunning the country, with Carlyle, Warburg Pincus and PAG fielding fresh inquiries

• 🇦🇺 Australian Consolidation: IFM Investors will wind down its A$1 billion domestic private equity unit despite delivering 33% net IRR since 2019

• 🌍 Global Secondary Growth: Secondary deal activity surpassed $100 billion in H1 2025, putting the market on pace for a record year

• 📊 Data Vendor Pricing: Rapid private markets growth has sparked fee increases of up to 40%, with providers adopting a "take it or leave it" approach

• 🇺🇸 University Liquidity: Elite US colleges including Northwestern are trying to offload PE stakes in secondary markets, though pricing remains "erratic"

• 🇦🇺 Regulatory Warning: Australia's $200 billion private credit market exhibits significant operational deficiencies with non-disclosed remuneration 3-5x publicly disclosed fees