Private Equity – More activity than meets the eye

Private equity (PE) purchasers made up a relatively small proportion of bidders in public deals in 2015. 12.5% of deals from our sample in 2015 (5 out of the 40 deals) involved PE bidders (largely consistent with 2014) and the average deal size was a relatively modest $126 million. However, this was not entirely reflective of private equity interest in public M&A targets as these figures did not take into account approaches made by PE houses which did not ultimately culminate in an announced transaction – including for example, U.S. private equity firm Providence Equity Partners' indicative proposal for iSelect.com.au and CHAMP Private Equity's consortium approach (with Sigdo Koppers) for Bradken Limited.