US buyout firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) has become the latest big-name investor to defy the current private equity fundraising slump by surpassing the $20bn target of its latest flagship fund, according to a report by The Financial Times.
The report cites unnamed sources familiar with the matter as revealing that CD&R last week asked investors for permission to raise the fund’s hard-cap from £23bn to £23.5bn in a sign that it expects to exceed the original target.
The move to increase the fund’s upper limit comes in the midst of an industry-wide slump in fundraising. According to a Bain & Co report published in July, global private equity fundraising totalled $517bn in the first six months of 2023, a decline of 35% on the same period a year earlier.
CD&R raised raised $16bn for its most recent flagship fund, which closed in 2021.
