It’s been a rough year for private equity firms. The highest interest rates in more than a decade have combined with relatively high inflation and led to a disconnect between buyers and sellers. Without a meeting of those two minds, it’s tough to get deals done. The numbers bear that out.

According to S&P Global, in the first nine months of 2023 global private equity investments had an aggregate value of $365.3bn, a decline of 44 per cent year over year. The number of private equity deals fell 36 per cent to about 13,000.

In fact, a bit of a surprise, the biggest private equity deal of the year — the roughly $15bn buyout of Toshiba Corporation — is happening in Tokyo, not New York, and involves Japan Industrial Partners and not any of the typical American buyout stalwarts, such as Blackstone, KKR and Apollo. But the paucity of new deals in 2023 will no doubt be temporary. For why, just take a look at two of the most successful private equity deals of all time.