SINGAPORE (Sept 29): Private equity firm Warburg Pincus has realised roughly US$12 billion in exits from investments this year, its chief executive said on Tuesday, putting it on course for a record return.

The figure compares with a record US$12 billion that the New York-headquartered firm realised last year, CEO Jeffrey Perlman said at the SuperReturn Asia conference in Singapore.

Warburg Pincus closed a US$3 billion financial sector fund in January and in 2023 raised US$17.3 billion for its flagship global growth fund. Perlman made no mention of a new fund being raised.

The global backdrop has been challenging for private equity funds as jittery equity markets and a selloff in software stocks, one of the sector's favourite targets, have been roadblocks for exits via listing publicly.

"This year, obviously, you can't sell the software businesses so easily," Perlman said. Warburg Pincus' two biggest exits, he said, were Consolidated Precision Products, an aerospace supplier sold to GE Aerospace, and Ensemble Health Partners, partially sold to investment firm Thoreau.

"If you're not diversified, if you're single country, single stage of investment, single sector, there's going to be long periods of time where the sun doesn't shine."

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