44 companies went public in 2018 with private equity backing, raising $16 billion in the IPO market. While deal count was down slightly from 2017, IPO proceeds hit a 4-year high. In addition, 11 PE-backed blank check companies completed offerings in 2018.
Apollo Global was one of the most active private equity firms in 2018, taking two of its LBOs public. Apollo was the lead investor of home security service ADT (ADT) and casino game supplier PlayAGS (AGS); it also sponsored blank check Spartan Energy Acquisition (SPAQ.U), which raised $480 million.
KKR was the lead shareholder on two PE-backed IPOs in 2018, home speaker maker Sonos (SONO) and landscaping services provider BrightView (BV). KKR was also a top shareholder in Focus Financial Partners (FOCS).
Explore the IPO Pro Private Equity Screen to find PE-backed IPOs, including deals brought public by Apollo, KKR, TPG Capital, Carlyle, Blackstone, Bain Capital, Advent International, Tiger Global and more.
Blackstone had one IPO exit in 2018, LBO'd industrial equipment maker Gates Industrial (GTES).
Carlyle Group was the top outside investor in China's OneSmart Education (ONE), and Riverstone/Carlyle was behind Liberty Oilfield Services (LBRT).
TPG Capital led the private equity consortium behind real estate services giant Cushman & Wakefield (CWK), which raised $765 million in its IPO. TPG also made growth equity investments in lending platform GreenSky (GSKY), which raised $874 million.
Tiger Global was the lead investor on one private equity-backed IPO in 2018, LBO'd survey platform SurveyMonkey (SVMK). The firm was also a top shareholder in Brazilian payment processor StoneCo (STNE) and Chinese auto platform Uxin (UXIN).
In addition to their private equity investments, TPG and Tiger Global actively made venture investments. TPG was the top investor in biotech Allogene Therapeutics (ALLO) and cybersecurity platform Zscaler (ZS). Tiger Global had two venture exits as well, as the largest investor in Eventbrite (EB) and a top shareholder of Spotify (SPOT).
