Our latest detailed analysis of the largest global buyout firms assesses performance following the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), which ushered in a new era of private equity investing. In the high valuation environment that persisted post-GFC, private equity firms focused more on operational value creation to generate returns. 

With increasing consolidation and competition across GPs and deal activity, institutional LPs are likely to be increasingly selective around their allocation decisions, assessing the managers that have delivered stable long-term outperformance following the GFC.

In this factsheet, we rank the most consistent top performing buyout fund managers since the GFC, and compare the latest global buyout AUM data from Preqin Pro against pre-pandemic levels.