Private Equity’s Dry Spell Worse Than 2008 Crisis, Bain Says (1)

Private equity returned fewer profits to investors for a fourth straight year as the industry sat on $3.8 trillion of unsold assets and struggled to raise money for new funds.

Distributions as a percentage of net asset value remained at 14% last year — the second-lowest level since the depths of the 2008 financial crisis, according to a new report from Bain & Co. And the duration of the rut is even more severe than what private equity firms faced then.

The value of deals in 2025 rose 44% from a year earlier to $904 billion, fueled by large transactions ...