M&A Comes to Private Equity

Blackrock made big news last week when it announced its $12B acquisition of Global Infrastructure Partners to triple the size of its infrastructure business.

This week, General Atlantic followed up with the purchase of Actis, an infrastructure investor with $12.5B in AUM.

These announcements reveal the intersection of two trends that are likely to continue in private equity for at least the next few years.

1. Infrastructure, driven by data centers and the energy transition, will continue to be a place where instructional investors gravitate to for returns.
2. Big, multi-strategy private equity firm M&A will continue as large firms look to get bigger in order to remain competitive. I wouldn’t be surprised to see acquisitions focused on scale (eg. the rumored interest in Warburg from Blackrock) or niche (etc. EQT’s acquisition of Mabtech).

It wouldn’t be surprising to see a lot of activity in one, or both of these trends in 2024 as the biggest private equity firms begin to ask the question of where can they spend their resources in a way that’s worth the effort, time, and generates returns.

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