Compared to some existing global investor rankings based on recent fundraising activity, we have chosen a novel approach in order to capture the geographical element as well as the investor specific (fund-related) technicalities. As it stands, it is extremely difficult, or even impossible, to distil what part of large investors’ funds will be allocated towards European businesses. Furthermore, we feel there is a constraint when relying solely on fundraising data as you will not capture large and active investors that work without traditional fund structures like government and pension funds.

Given we at Gain track investor portfolios on an asset level with the most complete and high quality information available on the market, we are well-positioned to construct a more accurate ranking. This ranking is determined by the total managed EV of each investor, calculated by multiplying the number of European portfolio companies by the median portfolio EBITDA and a predicted EBITDA multiple derived from a proprietary valuation algorithm developed by Gain.

We rank the 250 most active investors across the continent in our first edition of the report. After this, we will go one layer deeper by ranking on a geographical and sectoral level.

This edition also comes with relevant key findings and takeaways. American and British investors still dominate the European private equity landscape, while German PE’s are underrepresented given the country’s economic relevance. Regardless, the European private equity market remains fragmented, with CVC having emerged as the leading European investor this year, managing a total EV of approximately €59 billion. CVC is followed by EQT, managing around €47 billion, and KKR, overseeing roughly €38 billion. Notably, CVC, EQT and KKR also rank among the top global fundraisers.

Collectively, the full list of the top 250 investors in Europe are managing approximately €1.2 trillion in European companies. On average, these investors have 28 portfolio companies in Europe, with a median portfolio EBITDA of €43 million. Over the last five years, these investors have invested in more than twice as many new portfolio companies as they have exited. Specifically, there have been approximately 5,670 new investments in Europe, compared to 2,130 exits during the same period.

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