Dry powder fell by 10% over the year as private equity spending continued but the exit market remained challenging
(Update: This story has been updated in paragraph 3 to correct the change in dry powder.)
February 14, 2025 (Preqin News) – The big listed alternative asset managers raised more private equity capital and increased assets under management (AUM) in 2024, with combined private equity AUM of the largest seven listed GPs surpassing $1tn for the first time.
Performance of private equity strategies varied widely, from a high of 16.6% to a low of 3.2%. The results of listed fund managers provide the first insight into how private equity funds are performing, with the positive results showing that deal-making and capital-raising are improving.
The seven GPs – Blackstone, KKR, Brookfield, Apollo, TPG, Carlyle, and Ares – started the year with a record $1.09tn in private equity AUM. This is a 9.1% increase from $994.4bn at the end of 2023, and the first time this figure has climbed over $1tn. Dry powder has fallen by 9.9% overall (excluding Carlyle, who do not disclose dry powder for Corporate Private Equity separately) and inflows have increased by 12.8% to $93.2bn.
‘We will also soon begin raising the new vintages of a number of other highly successful strategies, including private equity Asia – for which we expect very significant closings in the coming months – along with private equity secondaries, GP stakes, and tactical opportunities. Overall, the fund-raising outlook is quite positive for the firm,’ Blackstone’s Chief Operating Officer Jon Gray said on the earnings call.
Private equity deal-making ticked up last year following two years of falling aggregate deal value. Last year saw a 13.9% year-on-year increase, with managers spending $1.28tn, according to Preqin data.
Here are the highlights, in private equity AUM order:
Blackstone delivered improved private equity performance in 2024. Its Corporate Private Equity segment returned 16.6% last year, including 4.9% in the fourth quarter, up from 12.1% in 2023.
Its Tactical Opportunities strategy returned 10.1% (an increase from 6.6% in 2023), Secondaries returned 7.8% (2.3% in 2023), and Infrastructure delivered 21.0% (12.1% in 2023).
The firm raised $41.3bn across its private equity strategies, including $19.5bn for Corporate Private Equity, $10.2bn for Infrastructure, $6.7bn for Secondaries, and $4.8bn for Tactical Opportunities. Total inflows grew by 42.4% from 2023.
Total private equity AUM increased 10.7% year-on-year to $352.2bn.
Deployments exceeded realizations across all strategies, leading to a drop in dry powder from $80.0bn to $69.0bn despite the increased inflows.
Blackstone has 19 growth and buyout private equity funds in market, including two evergreen vehicles, according to Preqin data. Its largest fund, Blackstone Capital Partners IX, has raised over $20bn and has a $28bn target.
‘We see a much more constructive environment for realizations in 2025. In the near term, we would expect disposition activity to be concentrated in our private equity strategies,’ Michael Chae, Chief Financial Officer at Blackstone, said on the firm’s earnings call.
KKR announced a gross return of 14% for its private equity portfolio in 2024.
The firm raised almost three times more capital last year than in 2023, with $17.7bn of inflows, more than half of which ($9.5bn) came in the final quarter of 2024. This was primarily driven by the Americas flagship strategy and the K-series for private wealth investors.
The firm invested $17.1bn in 2024, while uncalled commitments fell by $2.5bn to $54.9bn.
KKR’s private equity AUM grew by 11% last year to $195.4bn, which accounts for 31% of the firm’s total AUM.
KKR has seven private equity funds in market, including one perpetual vehicle and three funds targeting investments in the APAC region, according to Preqin data.
‘If you add up the capital we raised in 2024 in our more traditional private equity strategies, that represented 5% of the new capital we raised across the firm. It's an interesting statistic. Now, to be clear, we feel great about the work done across all those initiatives, but I think it speaks to the development and growth across KKR,’ Craig Larson, Partner and Head of Investor Relations at KKR, told analysts on an earnings call.
Brookfield did not disclose full-year private equity performance, but its 2022 vintage Brookfield Capital Partners Fund VI has a net IRR of 21%.
The firm did not raise any capital for a flagship private equity vehicle last year, and is currently raising one restructuring fund, Brookfield Special Investments Fund II. However, it did announce $3.8bn of private equity co-investment inflows, and $2.1bn for other long-term private equity private funds.
The firm currently has $15bn of uncalled commitments across its private equity strategies: Opportunistic, Special Investments, Secondaries, Regional, and Thematic.
Brookfield’s private equity AUM grew from $130bn in 2023 to $145bn last year, an increase of 10.3%.
The firm is currently raising two private equity funds, Brookfield Special Investments Fund II and Brookfield Technology Growth Partners III, according to Preqin data.
‘The pipeline for our private equity platform is very, very robust. We do expect to be back in the market with the next vintage of our private equity vehicle earlier than expected, very much expected at some point this year, and that will obviously lead to the next step change in revenues for that platform,’ Connor Teskey, President of Brookfield Asset Management, said on the firm’s investor call.
Apollo Global Management’s Flagship Private Equity strategy delivered a gross return of 7.4%. Its Hybrid Value strategy, which sits between credit and private equity, posted a full-year appreciation of 19.5%.
AUM contracted slightly from $135.3bn in 2023 to $134.7bn in 2024.
Apollo’s private equity realizations ($9.0bn) exceeded deployments ($7.2bn), and inflows fell from $14.3bn in 2023 to $9.8bn in 2024.
The firm’s dry powder fell from $29bn in 2023 to $25bn in 2024.
Apollo has six private equity funds in market, including its third Hybrid Value Fund, which is seeking $6bn, according to Preqin data.
‘When you think about the other challenges right now in the monetization of the IPO market, certainly, I think you're going to see a much, much greater volume of opportunity in the US and in Europe and parts of Asia with regard to places like Australia and Singapore and Hong Kong in the hybrid area,’ James Zelter, President & Director at Apollo Global Management, said on the earnings call.
TPG generated positive gross returns across its Capital, Growth, and Impact platforms, with Capital up 9.2% and Growth appreciating 10.7%. Its Impact platform generated a 9.5% gross return.
Private equity AUM increased 9.4% in 2024, from $116.9bn in 2023 to $129.0bn in 2024.
The firm’s Impact platform raised the most with $6.9bn in 2024, followed by the Capital strategy ($5.5bn), and Growth ($1.7bn). Overall, capital raised increased from $12.8bn in 2023 to $14.1bn in 2024.
Realizations exceeded deployment for its Capital platform ($6.7bn vs. $5.9bn) and Growth platform ($2.8bn vs. $1.8bn), but not for its Impact strategy ($1.4bn vs. $2.2bn).
The firm has $29.4bn of available capital to invest, an increase from 2023’s $26.8bn.
TPG has 17 private equity funds in market across growth, buyout, and fund-of-funds strategies, according to Preqin data.
‘We are also growing our presence in important distribution channels such as private wealth and are on track to launch our new evergreen private equity vehicle targeting the retail channel,’ Jon Winkelried, CEO of TPG Capital, said on the firm’s earnings call.
Carlyle’s Corporate Private Equity strategy appreciated 8% last year, an increase from 5% in 2023.
The firm’s Corporate Private Equity AUM contracted from $108bn in 2023 to $105bn in 2024.
Carlyle’s realizations ($12.4bn) were larger than deployments ($5.0bn).
Last year, Carlyle launched one private equity fund, Carlyle Europe Partners VI, which is targeting $7.5bn, according to Preqin data.
‘On tariffs, an area getting a lot of attention, the situation remains fluid, but the majority of our portfolio is either domestically focused or more services-oriented vs. goods, insulating it well from the impact of tariffs. Nearly 80% of our global private equity portfolio is US based, and though it is early days, we anticipate a very manageable impact across the portfolio, but will continue to monitor closely, obviously,’ Harvey Schwartz, CEO of the Carlyle Group, told analysts on the earnings call.
Ares Management's Corporate Private Equity strategy delivered a 3.2% net fund-level return for 2024.
AUM in its Private Equity Group decreased by 2% from $24.6bn in 2023 to $24.0bn in 2024, as commitments to its seventh corporate private equity fund ($0.3bn) were offset by distributions.
Ares’s private equity strategy has a dry powder of $4.1bn.
Overall, the firm raised $0.5bn and invested $0.4bn in 2024.
Ares said it raised $3.1bn for its private equity secondaries strategy. The firm said it deployed $2.7bn in private equity secondaries, which had a gross return of -5.6%.
Ares is raising one buyout fund targeting $6.0bn, which is looking to invest in consumer-retail, healthcare, industrial, and service-tech mid-market businesses, according to Preqin.
‘The last couple of years have been difficult from a gross-to-net standpoint. The M&A market has been incredibly slow and global volumes have been down. I feel really good about our ability to defend positions within the existing portfolios and find ways to bring liquidity into the market,’ Michael Arougheti, CEO of Ares, said on the earnings call.
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