The Largest Private Equity Firms in Europe
Europe's private-equity leadership runs through Stockholm: EQT manages €270bn (about $290bn) as of year-end 2025, and the continent's giants now look more like multi-strategy platforms than buyout shops.
Largest: EQT (€270bn / ~$290bn, year-end 2025) · European PE/VC fundraising: €147B in 2025 (+16%) · EQT five-year PE fundraising: $134.4B (#2 on the 2026 PEI 300)
A European private equity firm raises long-term capital from institutional investors and puts it to work in buyouts and growth investments, though the continent's largest have expanded well past that brief into infrastructure, credit, and secondaries. EQT leads at €270bn (about $290bn) as of year-end 2025, per its year-end 2025 report, and is also Europe's largest by pure private-equity fundraising on the 2026 PEI 300. CVC Capital Partners follows at €205bn after a record year of realisations, while Ardian reached a $200bn milestone in its thirtieth year, Partners Group stands at $186bn, and ICG manages $126bn. Below the multi-strategy platforms sit the specialists: software investor Hg at roughly $110bn, listed mid-market house Bridgepoint at $94.1bn, and a deep bench of buyout franchises, from Permira and Apax to Nordic Capital, PAI, and Waterland.
The story of 2025 and 2026 at the top of the table is consolidation into multi-strategy platforms. EQT announced the acquisition of secondaries firm Coller Capital in January 2026, CVC bought Marathon Asset Management to build out US credit, and Bridgepoint grew assets 24.5% in a year: scale now comes from adding strategies, not just from bigger buyout funds. The purer measure tells its own story. On five-year private-equity fundraising, the basis of the 2026 PEI 300, EQT raised $134.4bn and Hg ranks sixth globally at $70.2bn, ahead of far larger diversified platforms. Two caveats apply when comparing rows: firms disclose a mix of total, fee-paying, and committed capital in two currencies, so adjacent ranks are approximate, and privately held firms such as Permira, Apax, Cinven, and Triton disclose less, making their figures estimates.
The market beneath these firms had a strong 2025. European private equity and venture firms raised €147 billion, up 16% and the second-best year on record, with buyout funds taking €103bn of it, per Invest Europe's 2025 activity report. Investment reached €135 billion, also a second-best showing, even as deal count fell 8% to 3,881: fewer, larger deals, with the mid-market subdued while bigger transactions and exits improved selectively. Dry powder stood at €434.8 billion, near an all-time high, against purchase multiples of roughly 12.8x, which keeps the pressure on managers to deploy carefully rather than quickly. For fundraisers, the read is a bifurcated market: capital is available, but it keeps consolidating with the established platforms above. Every firm below links to its Altss profile, where leadership, funds, and investment activity are tracked.
Largest Private Equity Firms in Europe: by the numbers
- EQT ended 2025 at €270bn (about $290bn) and ranks #2 on the 2026 PEI 300 — Europe's largest firm on both measures, per EQT's year-end 2025 report.
- CVC Capital Partners reported €205bn at year-end 2025 alongside record realisations of €21.9bn and €23bn of inflows, per CVC's FY2025 results.
- Ardian crossed $200bn in March 2026, its thirtieth year, split across private equity ($137bn), real assets ($49bn), and credit ($14bn), per the firm's announcement.
- European PE/VC fundraising rose 16% to €147 billion in 2025, the second-best year on record, with buyout funds raising €103bn, up 33%, per Invest Europe.
- The 2026 PEI 300 raised a record $3.55 trillion over five years; EQT ($134.4bn) and Hg ($70.2bn, ranked sixth) lead Europe's contribution, per PEI.
- European PE dry powder stood at €434.8 billion, near an all-time high, against purchase multiples of about 12.8x, per PwC's 2026 PE Trend Report.
Largest Private Equity Firms in Europe
YE 2025 to H1/Q1-Q2 2026 reporting window (PEI 300 as of June 2026 covering 2021-2025 fundraising)
Ordered by each firm's latest reported total AUM. For the multi-strategy platforms at the top (EQT, CVC, Ardian, Partners Group, ICG) that figure spans infrastructure, credit, and secondaries alongside buyouts; PEI 300 five-year fundraising is noted where available as the pure private-equity comparison.
| # | Firm | AUM (USD) | Headquarters |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | EQT ABThematic private equity, infrastructure, real assets, and growth; Europe's largest by PEI 300 fundraising ($134.4bn over five years). Announced the acquisition of secondaries firm Coller Capital (roughly €28-30bn fee-paying AUM) in January 2026 amid strong exits and an evergreen private-wealth push. | €270bn (~$290bn) | Stockholm, Sweden |
| 2 | CVC Capital PartnersMulti-strategy private equity, credit, secondaries, and infrastructure; record 2025 realisations of €21.9bn with €23bn of inflows. Pre-marketing PE Fund X and acquiring Marathon Asset Management to build US credit. | €205bn | Luxembourg (listed Euronext Amsterdam; ops global/European) |
| 3 | ArdianDiversified private markets manager and secondaries leader spanning private equity, infrastructure, credit, and customized solutions. Hit the $200bn milestone in its thirtieth year after raising $21bn in 2025, with a record $30bn secondaries fund and a $20bn infrastructure raise behind it. | $200bn | Paris, France |
| 4 | Partners GroupPrivate markets multi-strategy manager across PE, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and evergreen mandates; $16bn of new commitments in H1 2026 and confirmed guidance of $26-32bn gross client demand for the year, following the Empira acquisition. | $186bn | Baar-Zug, Switzerland |
| 5 | ICG (Intermediate Capital Group)Private markets platform spanning structured capital, direct lending and credit, secondaries, and real assets; a listed firm with strong fundraising and strategies well beyond traditional buyouts. | $126bn | London, UK |
| 6 | HgB2B software and tech-services specialist, and Europe's top pure software PE firm; ranked sixth globally on the PEI 300 ($70.2bn over five years). Closed three funds totaling $28bn at their hard caps in 2025; portfolio enterprise value approaches $195bn. | c.$110bn | London, UK |
| 7 | Bridgepoint GroupMid-market private equity, credit, and infrastructure; AUM up 24.5% year over year with more than €8bn distributed to investors. Listed, with a European mid-market focus and global reach. | $94.1bn (site notes ~$98bn) | London, UK |
| 8 | PermiraGlobal growth-oriented private equity across tech, consumer, healthcare, and services, plus credit; invested €7.5bn and returned €12.6bn to investors in 2025, extending a multi-decade track record. | ~€80-89bn+ committed capital (AUM est. similar order) | London, UK |
| 9 | Apax PartnersGlobal mid-market private equity across tech, services, healthcare, and consumer, plus digital and credit funds; independent and partner-owned, with a long record of operational value creation and its next flagship raise targeted for 2026. | c.$80bn | London, UK |
| 10 | CinvenEuropean-focused buyouts in business services, consumer, financial services, healthcare, and industrials; more than 150 investments over roughly five decades, with strong exits to strategic buyers such as Viridium. | >€50bn total funds raised (AUM ~€44-55bn est.) | London, UK |
| 11 | Nordic CapitalNorthern European mid-market buyouts in healthcare, tech and payments, and services; Fund XI closed at its €9bn hard cap, with roughly 80% of value creation driven by earnings growth. | €39bn | Stockholm, Sweden |
| 12 | PAI PartnersPan-European mid- and large-cap buyouts in food and consumer, business services, industrials, and healthcare; heritage dating to 1872 and a deliberately diversified LP base. | c.€25bn | Paris, France |
| 13 | Triton PartnersEuropean mid-market private equity plus smaller mid-cap and credit strategies; closed its record Fund VI at its €5.5bn target in March 2026. Carve-out specialist with more than 110 investments. | €25bn+ capital raised since inception (AUM est. ~€20-30bn) | London / multi (Frankfurt, Stockholm; European mid-market) |
| 14 | Waterland Private EquityEuropean buy-and-build mid-market investor with an entrepreneur focus; closed Fund IX (€3.5bn) and a €0.5bn Partnership Fund as part of €4.6bn raised in under four months in 2026. More than 1,300 investments across its history. | >€20bn | Bussum / Netherlands |
| 15 | Montagu Private EquityMid-market private equity in healthcare, financial services, critical data, digital infrastructure, and education; a carve-out specialist with 38+ completed since 2002, a climate focus, and roughly 150 professionals. | ~€15bn | London, UK |
AUM definitions are not uniform: listed firms report total or fee-paying assets, while several private firms (Permira, Apax, Cinven, Triton) disclose committed capital, so their figures are estimates. Euro figures convert at roughly 1.08 USD/EUR, and reporting dates range from year-end 2025 to mid-2026, which can shift adjacent ranks. Multi-strategy platforms carry significant non-buyout assets, so the table overstates their pure private-equity scale relative to specialists such as Hg or Nordic Capital. Scope covers firms headquartered in Europe; US- and Asia-based managers with large European operations are excluded.
How we rank — and why definitions matter
The table orders firms by latest reported total firm AUM, the figure most readers mean by largest. For the platforms at the top it spans private equity plus infrastructure, credit, and secondaries, so pure buyout scale is smaller than the headline number suggests.
The cleaner private-equity measure is five-year direct fundraising, the basis of the PEI 300. On that measure EQT ($134.4bn) remains Europe's largest, and Hg ($70.2bn) ranks sixth globally, ahead of several much larger diversified platforms.
Largest Private Equity Firms in Europe — common questions
What is the largest private equity firm in Europe?
Why aren't Blackstone, KKR, or Carlyle on this list?
How does the AUM order differ from the PEI 300 fundraising order?
Which mid-market European firms are raising fastest?
Go deeper than the league table
Altss tracks every firm on this list, from leadership and funds to live activity, alongside coverage of 30,000+ institutional investors, RIAs, and family offices.