$31 Billion in Take-Privates, One Week: Public Markets Are Losing Their Best Companies to PE

Three companies worth a combined $31.4 billion are about to disappear from public stock exchanges. In a single week, CVC tabled a €10.9 billion offer for Italian pharma giant Recordati, Brookfield and La Caisse moved to take Canadian renewables firm Boralex private for $9.7 billion, and Poste Italiane launched a €10.8 billion bid to delist Telecom Italia.

These are not distressed assets being picked off at a discount. Recordati is one of Europe's most profitable specialty pharma companies. Boralex is a clean energy leader. Telecom Italia is Italy's dominant telco. The buyers are paying full price — sometimes a premium — because they believe these businesses are worth more outside public markets than inside them.

The Take-Private Math That's Driving This Wave

The logic behind each of these deals is different, but the conclusion is the same: public ownership has become a cost center.

For Recordati, CVC sees a specialty pharma platform that can be expanded through bolt-on acquisitions — the kind of serial M&A strategy that quarterly earnings calls make nearly impossible to execute without spooking shareholders. The €10.9 billion indicative offer, still subject to due diligence, would give CVC control of a company generating over €2 billion in annual revenue with margins above 30%.

Brookfield and La Caisse's $9.7 billion acquisition of Boralex follows a familiar infrastructure playbook: take a long-duration asset base private, deploy patient capital for expansion, and avoid the public market's preference for short-term returns. Boralex operates renewable energy assets across North America and Europe — exactly the kind of predictable cash-flow business that thrives away from quarterly pressure.

Poste Italiane's €10.8 billion bid for Telecom Italia is the outlier — a state-backed entity consolidating national infrastructure. But the delisting rationale is identical: to restructure, invest, and transform without the scrutiny of public shareholders demanding immediate returns.

Beyond Take-Privates: PE Deployed Across Every Asset Class

The take-privates grabbed headlines, but they were just the top layer of an extraordinary week for private equity. Across 74 PE-tagged deals tracked by InforCapital, firms were buying, selling, and raising capital simultaneously — a sign of a market that's fully in motion, not frozen by uncertainty.

On the buyout side, Apollo committed $3.7 billion to NSG in what it called the largest private equity investment in Japan's history. 3M and Bain teamed up to acquire Madison Fire & Rescue for $1.95 billion. Actis acquired 90% of 800 Super for $1.7 billion, marking its deepest push into Southeast Asian waste management.

Carve-outs and competitive auctions added another layer. Aurelius is targeting a $4.6 billion carve-out of Carrefour Belgium, while Apollo and Bain are leading a €4 billion bidding race for Continental's industrial unit. These deals — each worth more than most VC mega-rounds — barely registered against the take-private backdrop.

The Exit Machine Is Running, Too

What makes this week unusual isn't just the buying. PE firms were also selling at pace, recycling capital back to LPs while redeploying on the other side.

KKR sold CoolIT Systems to Ecolab for $4.75 billion — a data center cooling company riding the AI infrastructure wave. Advent exited OLAPLEX in a $1.4 billion sale to Henkel, ending a turbulent ride in premium beauty. Banks launched a $4.7 billion loan package to support CD&R's buyout of Sealed Air, showing that credit markets remain wide open for PE-backed transactions.

Meanwhile, the 3G Capital acquisition of Skechers — one of the largest consumer take-privates in recent memory — continued to draw attention as the firm's most ambitious bet yet. And Primary Wave Music moved to acquire Kobalt from Francisco Partners, a rare PE-to-PE exit in the independent music space.

Europe Is the Center of Gravity

Of the week's mega-deals, the geographic skew is unmistakable. Two of the three take-privates are European (Recordati in Italy, Telecom Italia). The carve-out targets are European (Carrefour Belgium, Continental Germany). The mid-market was dominated by French, Spanish, and Italian transactions.

Spain saw particularly dense PE activity: Cinven, KKR, and Providence completed their acquisition of MASMOVIL, Peninsula Capital picked up I+D certification firm EQA, Nexxus Iberia acquired Shop&Roll, and Portobello Capital entered negotiations for baby products maker Suavinex. In Italy, the Qatar Investment Authority reportedly moved to take a 10% stake in Golden Goose, and HIG Capital's Medisolve continued its European healthcare roll-up by acquiring Spain's Cedyt.

This European concentration isn't coincidental. Valuations in European public markets have lagged the U.S. for years, creating a persistent discount that PE buyers can exploit. When Recordati trades at 20x earnings while comparable U.S. specialty pharma companies trade at 30x, the take-private math writes itself.

The Fundraising Pipeline Tells You What's Coming Next

PE firms aren't just deploying — they're reloading. Lead Edge Capital announced $3.5 billion for Fund VII, focused on growth-stage software deals. Blue Pool Capital raised $1 billion for its first dedicated PE fund — notable because Blue Pool is the family office of Alibaba co-founders Joe Tsai and Jack Ma. Pictet raised $440 million for its first direct PE fund targeting founder-led businesses.

Combined, PE fundraising this week topped $5 billion in fresh commitments (excluding Lead Edge duplicates). That dry powder will need to go somewhere in the next 3-5 years, which means the take-private pipeline likely has more deals behind it.

What This Signals for Q2

The pace of PE deal-making in late March 2026 looks nothing like the cautious, rate-sensitive environment of 2024. Several forces are converging: credit markets are accommodating (the $4.7 billion Sealed Air financing closed without difficulty), European valuations remain discounted, and LP pressure to deploy is mounting after two years of more measured capital deployment.

The take-private trend, in particular, has room to run. Public companies with stable cash flows, strong market positions, and management teams open to change remain plentiful — especially in Europe. If CVC can table an €10.9 billion offer for Recordati and the market barely flinches, expect more sponsors to test the upper limits of what's possible.

The question isn't whether PE will keep buying. It's whether public markets will start pricing these companies correctly before the sponsors get to them first.

Analysis based on 74 PE-categorized deals and 194 M&A signals tracked by InforCapital between March 21-28, 2026. Deal values include transactions at various stages, from indicative offers to completed acquisitions. Figures are based on publicly reported deal terms.