Capital Under Management & Dry Powder analysis

The analysis established by Invest Europe captures changes in Capital Under Management and Dry Powder from 2011-2020 across all European countries. Capital Under Management (CUM) reached €754bn in 2020, spread across 2,564 firms. (€283bn of this constituted Dry Powder (DP)). The value of the Portfolio At Cost (PAC) was €471bn.

More highlights are below:

The historical trend shows that from 2011 CUM has consistently grown year-on-year, seeing a maximum growth of 15% from 2018 to 2019 (and 13% from 2019 to 2020).

Buyout funds in Europe held the most amount of CUM of all fund stage focuses, with €187bn of DP and €299bn of PAC in 2020. The historical trend shows that this fund stage focus has held a minimum of 65% of DP and 63% of PAC for any given year. Generalist funds held the second-largest amount of PAC in 2020 (€73bn), whilst in the case of DP, this was Venture Capital funds (€39bn).

Funds reaching final closing of size >€1bn within Buyout held the majority of Buyout CUM in 2020 (€282bn). Within other fund stage focuses, the distribution of CUM was more spread across several size ranges, the fund size ranges holding the largest amount of CUM per fund stage focus for the year being: €100-250m in Venture and Generalist, and >€1bn for Growth.

Funds with vintage years 2017-2020 that registered final closings held the majority of total DP for 2020: €185bn, or 85% of the total. Time taken for funds to see DP as a % of funds raised to the date below 30% is roughly consistent across vintages studied: around 4-5 years. This time taken is similar for vintage years to reach their maximum PAC as % of funds raised to date.

Dry Powder held by funds in 2020, uncalled commitments* coming from Pension funds were the largest contributor (29% of total DP for the year). They were followed by Fund of funds & other asset managers (18% of total DP for the year) and Family offices & private individuals (13% of total DP for the year). Sources of funds to DP in 2020 vary depending on both geography and fund stage focus.

The full analysis you can find below.