Private equity firms raised a record $453bn from investors in 2017, surpassing the previous record of $414bn set in 2007, the year of the onset of the global financial crisis, FN's sister publication Private Equity News reports.

The record-breaking figure was driven by the rise of the so-called mega buyout fund, defined by data provider Preqin as having assets of at least $4.5bn. The mega funds accounted for $174bn of the money raised from investors, far more than the $119bn the equivalent group gathered in 2007.