Private equity fundraising has already blown past last year’s record totals and is now expected to top $400 billion in 2006, according to Private Equity Intelligence research. That would represent a 41% jump over last year’s $283 billion. This year has already seen the largest-ever launched – The Blackstone Group’s $15.6 billion vehicle – but that record, too, is in jeopardy, with both Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Goldman Sachs planning mega-funds. “I think there’s a lot more to go,” JPMorgan Chase European financial sponsor group chief Larry Slaughter told Reuters. Much of the growth is being attributed to voracious institutional demand. Slaughter adds, “as long as we have a growing economy, as we do currently, you will continue to see expansion of this.”
