Editor's Note: This article was originally published in the July 15, 2025 edition of Ag Equipment Intelligence. To view AEI content as it's published, you can subscribe to the monthly newsletter here.
A slowdown in mergers and acquisitions across industries that started in 2022 has made private equity less profitable and reduced the amount of money firms return to investors, the Wall Street Journal reported June 30.
“Beyond hitting profits, the slump has delayed the timeline for private equity firms to sell investments, adding to the pile of so-called tail-end funds, those a decade or more old,” reported Chris Cumming.
He noted that the most recent data shows firms had $668 billion of privateequity assets globally stuck in tail-end funds as of 2023, 19% higher than the previous year, according to a report from Treo Asset Management.
Finbarr O’Connor, Treo’s chief investment officer and founding partner, said the trend continues and he is forecasting tail-end assets to hit $1 trillion in coming years. The Treo report shows that a third of assets held 8 years or more are worth less than the initial capital investment.
Fund limited partners are likely paying $3-13 billion a year in management fees on the $668 billion in tail-end assets, based on the typical fee range of 0.5-2% on net asset value, WSJ reported.
“The report underscores some of the cascading effects of private equity’s exit drought. In the U.S., firms’ combined exit volume in the nearly 2.5 years since the start of 2023 remains below the 2021 sum alone, according to research provider PitchBook Data. By 2023, U.S. firms’ median investment hold time had climbed to a record high of 7 years, and it remains nearly the historic peak,” Cumming reported.
What It Means for Ag
With a slowdown in activity, it’s gotten more challenging for PE firms to sell their holdings. This could mean cost cutting measures that will impact the manufacturers and dealers they own, be it staffing cuts or other budgetary restraints, to make them more attractive to other buyers. For those companies looking for investment, it may be harder to find PE firms who are able to invest. Private equity firms are no stranger to the ag equipment industry. There are nearly 90 different private equity firms whose portfolios include or have previously included holdings in the ag space, including both manufacturers and dealerships such as:
- Diamond Mowers
- Carbon Robotics
- Atlantic Tractor
- Livingston Machinery
- Ag Solutions Group
- Ingersoll
- Bellota
- Waltersheid
- Tarter Farm & Ranch Equipment
- Oregon Tool
- JLD-Laguë
- Verdant Robotics
- Dalton Ag Products
- Fast Ag Solutions
- Tidewater Equipment Co.
- Monarch Tractor
- Salin 247
- Environmental Tillage Systems
- Art’s Way Manufacturing
- Carbon Robotics
- Moveero
- Sunset Kubota
- Valley Kubota
- Berlon Industries
- Sabanto
- United Ag & Turf
- Agtonomy
- Briggs & Stratton
- Fecon
- IronCraft
- Northfield Industries
- Bigham Brothers
- Degelman
- Riteway
