Canada’s Private Equity Boom Shatters Records with $56B Deal Frenzy
Private equity's cash cannon just blasted Canada into the stratosphere—$56 billion worth of deals locked in for 2025. That's not growth. That's a land grab.
Why now? Because when traditional markets wobble, PE vultures swoop. Low interest rates? Check. Undervalued assets? Check. A regulatory environment that still hasn't learned from the 2008 playbook? Big check.
And let's be real—half these 'value creation' promises will end as PowerPoint slides forgotten after the champagne flutes get cleared. But hey, at least the bankers get their fees.
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The Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association says there were 483 private equity transactions carried out across the country between January and the end of September this year. However, the record dollar value of the deals was driven by four large privatization deals.
The big private equity deals included Garda World Security Corp. going private in a $14-billion deal, an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund buying CI Financial for $12.1 billion, and Innergex Renewable Energy being acquired for $10 billion.
Markets and Economy
The increasing number of Canadian companies being taken private comes amid signs that the economy is slowing and might be headed for a recession due largely to U.S. tariffs. It also comes as a growing number of Canadian companies MOVE away from volatile and demanding public markets.
Canada’s benchmark Toronto Stock Exchange is up 24% this year, outpacing the 17% gain in the S&P 500 index. The rise in private equity deals this years is a notable change from 2022 and 2023, which saw record-low deals totaling $14.7 billion and $10 billion, respectively.
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