Private Equity

Private equity deals returning to normal after ‘once in a generation’ boom in 2021

While valuations in some areas have moderated from the heady highs of 2021, private equity firms agree that good quality businesses will always attract investment

Leo Casey, head of private equity firm BGF’s Irish operations: ‘I’m a long time working in corporate finance, and I’ve never seen anything like what happened in 2021.’ Picture: Fergal Phillips

Leo Casey has been working in corporate finance for almost 20 years, but what happened in investment markets last year was unprecedented in his experience. After the economic shutdown caused by Covid-19 in the first half of 2020, businesses were in a rush to catch up on lost time.

Fuelled by unprecedented capital availability as a result of government stimulus and an ultra-low interest rate environment, corporate takeover deals and merger and acquisition (M&A) activity ...