Private Equity 2025

Trends and Developments

While the fundraising environment continued to be challenging throughout 2024, private equity capitalised on the recovery of the financial markets following the prolonged period of market volatility, high interest rates and inflationary pressures, with a significant rebound in deal activity and notable increases in deal value and the number of large private equity deals. Such confidence in the financial markets continued into the first quarter of 2025, with a strong start to the year's activity levels and private equity firms eager to deploy the near-record levels of dry powder that had accumulated. Ultimately, however, a challenging geopolitical environment and global trade policy pressures during the first half of 2025 have led to a dip in deal activity levels, with fundraising looking set to remain challenging for the second half of the year.