Simpson Thacher advised EQT in connection with the establishment of its tenth buyout fund, EQT X. EQT announced that the fund raised €22 billion (USD $24 billion), exceeding its €20 billion target and hitting its hard cap, having received commitments from a broad range of global investors including pension and sovereign wealth funds, asset managers, and the private wealth segment. EQT X is nearly 40% larger than its 2021 predecessor fund, EQT IX, which closed in 2021 at €15.6 billion.
EQT was founded in 1994 with the backing of Investor AB, AEA Investors and SEB. With a total AUM of over €230 billion, EQT is one of the world’s largest and most successful private equity firms – reported by Private Equity International as one of the top three private equity firms in the world by capital raised in the past five years.
The Simpson Thacher team was led by Jason Glover, Robert Lee and Beth Cowen, and included Connor Brown, Andreea Gancea, Tomas Guilliatt-Griggs, Shanelle Muller, Annabelle Playford and Sam Zdatny (Funds); William Smolinski, Darius Meehan, Preston Irace and Chris Dorman (Tax); Barrie Covit, Jeanne Annarumma, Chi Shum and Manny Halberstam (Private Funds – U.S.); and Daniel Deacon and Jack Gould (Regulatory).