Private equity firms generated some $5.7 billion in fees to investment banks in the first half of 2006, thanks to their ever-present role in mergers and acquisitions, Dealogic reports. That figure, however, is 6% lower than last year at this time, p.e. firms have to compete more fiercely with other financial firms for the good deals. Topping list of p.e firms contributing the big bucks to banks is New York-based Apax Partners, which accounted for 5.3% of the total sponsor market, or $300 million. The biggest recipient of the Apax money is Deutsche Bank, which took in 11.2%, while 83% of revenue Apax generated came from deals in the Europe/Middle East/Africa region. Overall, Apax’s revenue from the EMEA region rose about 70% to $244 million. Rounding out the top five in the sponsor-revenue derby are Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, The Blackstone Group and Bain Capital, which together accounted for about 20% of the total fees. While Deutsche Bank got the most from Apax, it came in fifth in overall share with 6.0%. Leading in market share overall is JPMorgan with 8.9%, followed by Goldman Sachs (8.2%), Credit Suisse (7.6%) and Citigroup (6.4%).
