Private equity IPO volumes halve in 2012 A total of $20.5bn (£12.7bn) was raised globally during 2012, compared with nearly $39bn the previous year. Jeffrey Bunder, global head of private equity at Ernst & Young, said the fall in deal volumes was a result of "lowered investor confidence" on the back of fears over slowing growth. "Those deals that priced during the year generally performed well on the first day of trading - and more importantly, the majority of those companies successfully held on to those initial gains," he said. On average, private equity-backed companies recorded an 11.4pc increase in their share price on their first day of trading and, on average, generated a return of 14.1pc for investors over the course of the year. US companies accounted for just over two-thirds of the global total of private equity flotations. The largest deal of 2012 was the $7.1bn flotation of Malaysian healthcare business IHH Healthcare, which floated jointly on the Malaysian and Singapore stock markets.