The amount of unspent, uncalled capital held by private equity funds was down 6% overall, to $324.7 billion, at the end of 2012 from a year earlier and down 27% from the peak of $445 billion at the end of 2009, according to data released Tuesday by research firm Cambridge Associates.
Larger funds, those with $5 billion or more in total capital, had $133 billion in so-called “overhang” at year-end 2012, down 7.8% from Dec. 31, 2011. Funds with total capital between $1 billion and $5 billion had a $122 billion overhang, down 10.4%; and funds of less than $1 billion had a total overhang of $69.7 billion up 8.9%.
