King of the Private Equity Hill

The trade magazine Private Equity International is just out with its annual list of PE funds ranked by their success in raising capital.

Before we get to the winner, let's confirm that, yes, raising capital amid the worst recession in more than half a century has been difficult. Exactly how difficult is not easy to gauge, since PEI magazine uses a five-year rolling average^† in compiling its list. (And it doesn't get into the touchy business of ranking how much the firms earned on their investments.)

We can say that the aggregate five-year rolling average among the top 50 firms was essentially flat in the latest tally -- $813 billion versus $810 billion -- after having soared 47 percent between 2007 and 2008.

Who's on top? TPG, having raised $52.35 billion over the last 64 months -- $3.6 billion more than its total last year, when it finished in third place. Goldman Sachs Principal Investment Area came in second place for the second year, and last year's leader, Carlyle, slipped to third place.

The Top 10 finishers are in a chart below. The Top 300 will be revealed soon on Private Equity International's website.

For those keeping score, the biggest decliner was Permira, in London. Its total dropped by more than half, to $12.67 billion in the most recent tally, and it fell to 21st place from 8th place last year.

by Mark Stein

^†It's actually closer to a 64-month rolling average, since the magazine starts counting on January 1 -- of 2004 for this year's total -- and doesn't stop until April 15 of the year the numbers are release.