Global private equity (PE) investment, including announced deals, closed deals, and completed deals have declined in the first quarter of this year.
The total dropped to $444.9bn in Q1 2025 from $463.8bn in Q4 2024, according to KPMG’s Private Equity Pulse quarterly.
Deal count declined more sharply, from 4,958 to 3,762, over the same period. The quarter-over-quarter decline in deal volume in particular highlights the growing concerns around geopolitical tensions and international trade and tariff policies, said KPMG.
Gavin Geminder, global head of private equity, KPMG International commented: “Many PE investors are going to take some extra time before moving forward with deals, waiting for some better clarity on where the tariffs and other factors including GDP growth rates are likely to land, which hasn’t been forthcoming in the first few weeks of April.”
However, in Asia Pacific (Apac), PE investment rose slightly to $37.5bn across 226 deals in the first quarter of this year after $29.1bn for 288 deals in the previous quarter. But the deal count represents a gradual fall since 2021.
There were some highlights within the region. Japan saw venture capital (VC) investment rise from $5.5bn across 79 deals in Q4 2024 to $20.2bn across 51 deals in Q1 2025 – level that approached the $22.8bn in PE funding that Japan saw during all of 2024.
But other jurisdictions saw weaker results. In Australia, PE investment fell from $9.1bn across 86 deals in Q4 2024 to $5.3bn across 69 deals in Q1 2025. China continued to see very soft PE investment, with just $4.1bn invested across 36 deals during the quarter.
The slowdown can partly be attributed to sluggish economic performance and persistent regulatory uncertainty, according to KPMG.
At a sector level, industrial manufacturing saw $11.9bn in PE investment, while energy and natural resources had $9.4bn, and TMT attracted $6.6bn in Apac during the first quarter of the year.
