Improving market conditions for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in 2025 are likely to lead to an increase in exits by private equity firms.  This will be welcome news in an environment where private equity hold periods increased from 3 to 5 years to more than 7 years for North American private equity funds, the longest hold period since 2000.  

At Riveron, we’ve seen a significant increase in sell-side due diligence from our private equity clients during the past two to three months, whereby portfolio companies are prepared for sale processes. We expect sell-side preparation to continue to increase over the next several months.

Private equity exits increased from $754 billion in 2023 to $902 billion in 2024, but total exit volume remained well below pandemic-era highs. Muted M&A exit opportunities, coupled with an IPO market in which significant transactions were few and far between, exacerbated a growing industry-wide “sell-side” backlog. With many funds nearing the ends of their life cycles, there continues to be much focus on diverse exit routes, such as cross-fund deals, continuation funds, minority deals and co-control deals, and limited partners have continued to be active in the secondary market. Additionally, an increasing number of transactions have involved multiple sponsors in club deals or sponsors partnering with strategics to tackle deal size, execution risk, investment horizon and other complexities, trends that we expect to continue in 2025 and to facilitate “partnered” exits.

https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2025/01/22/mergers-and-acquisitions-what-awaits-in-2025/