KPMG's quarterly report on the industry, using PitchBook data, shows rolling 12-month exit value of $1.4 trillion even as deal counts shrank. Investors are getting fewer, larger exits.
Private equity is selling bigger companies and fewer of them.
Global exit value reached $1.4 trillion over the 12 months through the third quarter, the highest in 18 quarters, according to KPMG's Pulse of Private Equity report for the third quarter, which draws on PitchBook data. At the same time, the rolling 12-month count of exits fell to its lowest level in 22 quarters.
In the first nine months of 2026, firms completed 2,204 exits worth $985.2 billion. Investment over the same period totaled $1.5 trillion across 14,650 deals.
Two numbers, one problem
The divergence explains why fundraising feels hard even when headline exit totals look strong. Limited partners care about cash returned across their whole portfolios, and that depends on how many companies are sold, not just on the size of the largest deals. A market in which a small number of very large exits drives the dollar figure leaves most funds still holding companies they planned to sell years ago.
It also shows where buyers are willing to pay. Large, high-quality assets are finding buyers at prices sellers will accept. Smaller and midsize companies, which make up most of the industry's holdings, are moving more slowly.
How firms are working around it
The week's deals show the workarounds in action. Inflexion sold a majority of Celnor to Goldman Sachs Alternatives at about €1 billion while keeping a minority stake. Keyhaven Capital moved Novation Tech, an Italian carbon-composite maker it has owned since 2017, into a €100 million continuation vehicle led by Committed Advisors, giving its fund investors the option to cash out while the firm keeps managing the company.
Partial sales and continuation vehicles return some capital without requiring a full sale at a price the market will bear.
The valuation question
Slow exits feed the debate over how private portfolios are valued. If fewer companies are sold, fewer marks are tested against real prices. One piece of evidence cuts against the worry. An EDHEC study of 333 exits by 29 U.K.-listed investment trusts, covering private equity and infrastructure, found that carrying values understated exit prices. For the 282 private equity exits, the median uplift was about 20%.
What to watch
Fourth-quarter exit counts, the volume of continuation vehicles and partial sales, and whether a recovery in large deals spreads to the middle market.