They poured almost $50bn of fresh capital into Asian-dedicated private equity funds last year, according to the Hong Kong Centre for Asia Private Equity Research – almost a fifth more than in 2007. All this cash on the sidelines, and yet the deals still are not happening. In 2006, in spite of big commitments of manpower and capital from the big buy-out shops, financial sponsor-led deals in Asia accounted for just 6 per cent of overall mergers and acquisitions in the region, at $37bn, according to Dealogic. By 2008 that was down to 4 per cent; so far this year it is less than 1 per cent.
香港亚洲私人股本研究中心(Hong Kong Centre for Asia Private Equity Research)表示，去年，这些机构向亚洲专项私人股本基金投入了近500亿美元新资本，较2007年的水平高出近五分之一。所有这些资金都已到位，但交易仍无法达成。Dealogic的数据显示，2006年，尽管大型收购机构投入了大量人力和资本，但亚洲金融机构牵头的交易仅为370亿美元，占当地并购交易总额的6%。到2008年，这个比例降至4%；今年迄今为止，尚不到1%。