Private equity firms invested more than $443 billion in U.S.-based companies last year, a 27 percent increase over the previous year, according to the Private Equity Growth Capital Council’s fourth annual investment report, “Private Equity: Top States and Districts.”
Delaware moved into 18th place in the national ranking with $6.9 billion in investments ahead of much larger states such as Wisconsin and Michigan. The two Midwestern states rounded out the top 20.
The analysis, which ranks the top 20 states and congressional districts by investment value and number of investments, found that Texas received the most investment in 2013, topping California, Pennsylvania, New York, Florida and Illinois According to the report, Delaware has 45 private equity-backed companies based in the state that employ 12,870 workers both inside and outside the state. The above companies have invested an estimated $11.8 billion Delaware-based companies between 2004 and 2013.
The Delaware Public Employees Retirement System has $7.5 billion in assets under management and has invested an estimated $1.9 billion in private equity, according to the report.
“Private equity investment is long-term capital at work,” said Steve Judge, president and CEO of the Private Equity Growth Capital Council. “The companies in states across the country that receive private equity investment are able to expand their businesses, develop new innovations and hire workers and this report highlights the important contributions of private equity in the U.S. economy.”
For the third year in a row, Texas received the most investment from private equity (measured in dollars invested) totaling $87.4 billion in 282 companies. California came in second, followed by Pennsylvania, which moved up in the rankings from sixth place last year.
Other states that moved up in the rankings are Virginia, which jumped from sixteenth to seventh, and Maryland, Delaware and Minnesota, which all moved into the top 20 in 2013.
The report is part of the PEGCC’s ongoing Private Equity at Work campaign aimed at educating policy makers and the public about the private equity industry and its contributions to the American economy. “Private Equity: Top States and Districts” is one of the two major analyses conducted each year by the PEGCC.
The PEGCC also releases a yearly report every fall ranking pension fund investment in private equity.
