KPMG: global private equity carve-outs reach $182.2 billion in 2026

Global private equity carve-out deal value reached $182.2 billion across 1,254 transactions in the first nine months of 2026, according to KPMG's Pulse of Private Equity Q3'26, as corporates reshape portfolios.

Carve-outs reach $182.2 billion while the deal count slips

KPMG said 2026 is on track to be the second-strongest year for carve-outs after 2021. Rolling twelve-month value was $247.7 billion across 1,751 deals in Q3, from $249.6 billion across 1,805 in Q2.

That is a 0.8% drop in value and a 3.0% drop in count, our calculation. KPMG said the pattern matches the wider market, where sponsors pick fewer, larger deals.

KPMG said carve-outs are no longer concentrated in distressed or underperforming units. More sellers are offering healthy assets that do not fit a company's or a fund's forward strategy.

The Americas lead on value, Europe, the Middle East and Africa on volume

The Americas accounted for $125.5 billion across 675 transactions on a rolling twelve-month basis, below $133.9 billion in Q2, according to KPMG. The US contributed $18.2 billion across 155 deals.

The US is 14.5% of Americas carve-out value, our calculation. KPMG said this likely reflects a mature US market with fewer opportunities than in the past.

Europe, the Middle East and Africa recorded $92.7 billion, a fifth straight quarterly increase. The region also led on volume with 883 deals, slightly below the record of 918 in Q2.

Asia-Pacific reached a rolling twelve-month high of $23.4 billion, from $20.5 billion in Q2, across 131 deals. KPMG said large Japanese corporates have only started to treat divestitures as acceptable practice.

Energy and automotive units lead the sector tally

Energy carve-outs reached a record $56.6 billion across 144 deals by the end of Q3, according to KPMG. Interest comes from corporates reshaping portfolios and from funds with dry powder.

Automotive carve-outs reached a five-year high of $8.3 billion across 40 deals, KPMG said. It tied this to shifting demand for automotive products and heavy energy-transition investment by manufacturers.

In Asia, Alibaba agreed to sell its Lingxi Games unit to Trustar Capital, the private equity arm of Citic Capital, Caixin reported on Aug. 17. Bloomberg valued the deal at $1.5 billion, which neither side confirmed.

KPMG lists the Lingxi deal at $1.5 billion in its top-ten table and cites $1.4 billion in its text.

KPMG also lists the sale of Plus ES, an Australian smart-metering business, as a $2.1 billion corporate divestiture. Ausgrid named DigitalBridge as the buyer but gave no price.

Funds use carve-outs to return cash while exits stay scarce

Paul Pan, private equity leader for deal advisory at KPMG in the US, said in the report that sponsors ask "whether they can sell parts of the business to provide returns now."

KPMG said difficult exits and pressure to return cash to investors are creating carve-outs of a different kind. Sponsors sell units they can monetize while keeping the parts they want.

The backlog behind that pressure is large. W Capital Partners estimated about 29,000 buyout-backed companies and about 1,500 exits a year. Financier Worldwide calculated a backlog of roughly 20 years of exits. See our note on private equity exits.

Carve-outs are not an easy route to returns. Bain's 2025 Global Private Equity Report put the average carve-out since 2012 at a 1.5x multiple on invested capital, Bain said on March 3, 2025.

Bain put top-quartile carve-outs at 2.5x, against 2.7x for top-quartile buyouts. Its sample covers global buyouts with equity checks above $100 million.

Report in numbers

Caption: Carve-out deal value in US dollars. Rolling figures cover the twelve months to Sept. 30, 2026. Source: KPMG, PitchBook data as of Sept. 30, 2026. The 0.8% and 3.0% changes and the 14.5% share are our calculation.

KPMG expects carve-outs to keep growing as AI spending rises

KPMG said carve-outs should remain a growing part of the market as corporates divest healthy assets, partly because capital is needed for strategic activities such as AI efforts.

It said AI is also expected to become a major lever for sponsors doing carve-outs, as they reimagine corporate functions to cut costs and create value.

• Q4 2026: KPMG expects take-privates and carve-outs to stay a major focus for private equity investors.
• Q4 2026 and 2027: KPMG expects headwinds to continue, including geopolitical tensions, tariffs, high energy costs, rising interest rates and inflation.

How we reported this: We read KPMG's Q3'26 report and opened the Caixin, Ausgrid, Financier Worldwide and Bain pages. The 0.8%, 3.0% and 14.5% figures are our calculation: 247.7 / 249.6, 1,751 / 1,805 and 18.2 / 125.5.