Private equity fund-raising has fallen 46 per cent worldwide to $45 billion in the July- September quarter this year, says research firm Preqin.

It said 97 private equity funds raised an aggregate $44.8 billion — 46 per cent decline on $82.8 billion that was raised by 175 funds in Q2 2011.

“Private equity fund-raising was extremely challenging in the third quarter of 2011, with September a particularly slow month for fund raising; just $8.9 billion was raised by the 33 funds to close that month,” said Preqin Senior Manager and spokesperson, Ms Helen Kenyon.

“Although we anticipate the latest quarterly fund-raising figures to improve by around 10-20 per cent as more information becomes available, fund-raising in Q3 2011 is still set to fall short of the level seen in Q2, when $82.8 billion was raised by the 175 funds that closed in the quarter,” she added.

In terms of geographic regions, North America-focused funds raised $22.5 billion during Q3, while those centred on Europe garnered $11.3 billion and funds aimed at Asia raked in $11 billion, the report said.

The report shows that buy-out funds raised the most capital in the third quarter, with 19 funds raising $19.4 billion. Besides, 16 real estate funds mopped-up $10.8 billion.

Funds that closed in the July-September quarter of 2011 took an average of 17 months to finish securing commitments, compared with on an average 20 months in 2010.

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