Private capital investors expect to increase their volume of dealmaking globally in the coming months, widening the chasm with moribund public markets, Bloomberg News reported. Two-thirds of 30 investment firms surveyed by UK investment bank Numis Securities Ltd. see an increase in the number of private companies raising capital in the next six months, according to Rachel Stott, an associate director on the bank’s growth capital solutions team. Respondents included Softbank Group Corp., Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst. “While most remain deeply pessimistic about the macro environment, with nine in ten anticipating worse conditions ahead, the overarching and encouraging theme we are hearing from investors is that activity levels will pick up,” Stott said in a interview. Even the largest startups are turning to deep private capital pools to fund investment, while shunning public market listings given declining risk appetite. But stock market volatility has weighed on valuations recently, causing some private firms to swallow hefty markdowns.
