Firm of the Year – Mid Cap
(AUM – below USD 20bn)

Advantage Partners

Advantage Partners has demonstrated multi-strategy bona fides over the past 12 months, raising JPY 300bn (USD 1.9bn) for its eighth Japan buyout fund and USD 424m for its second Asia ex-Japan fund, targeting up to JPY 200bn for its latest private solutions fund, and launching a real estate business. The sponsor also further embraced external investors: Tokyo Century Corporation hiked its stake to 33.3%, while Pinnacle Investment Management acquired 5% with the right to increase to 13%. Meanwhile, the Japan buyouts for which Advantage is best known continued steadily with acquisitions of Nihon Chouzai, Lion Specialty Chemicals, and TRA Holdings.

ChrysCapital Partners

ChrysCapital Partners continued its penetration of India’s buyout market with the INR 14.5bn (USD 159m) acquisition of Novartis India in July 2026 – the sponsor’s first control deal in the pharmaceutical space. Other investments over the past 12 months reflect its minority equity roots: customer engagement platform MoEngage, pharma player Linux Laboratories, and contract manufacturer Nash Industries. ChrysCapital also reclaimed the mantle of India’s largest private equity fundraise, closing Fund X on USD 2.2bn in November 2025. Scaling up from USD 1.35bn in the prior vintage facilitated the addition of 30 new global investors and – for the first time – onshore LPs.

Crescent Capital Partners

Crescent Capital Partners has established itself as a healthcare specialist pursuing a broader mid-market mandate. This track record helped the sponsor to a swift final close on its eighth flagship Australia and New Zealand-focused buyout fund at the hard cap of AUD 1.3bn (USD 900m) in July 2026. Over the past 12 months, Crescent has completed acquisitions of water filtration business Billi and Benson Radiology, while exiting ClearView Wealth. In addition, the sponsor is raising private credit and small-cap private equity funds, has launched an evergreen vehicle aimed at high net worth investors, and is building a listed equities business.

Hahn & Company

Hahn & Company has generated more liquidity than any other South Korean sponsor over the past 12 months. The largest exit, SK Shipping’s sale of crude tankers for KRW 973.7bn (USD 665m), facilitated a broader restructuring whereby SK Shipping and H-Line Shipping traded assets to double down on liquefied natural gas and tankers and dry bulk, respectively. Separately, Korean Air’s catering and duty-free business was exited via a KRW 750bn buyback, used car platform K Car and its financing unit were sold for KRW 550bn and KRW 200bn, and a stake in SK Eternix went to KKR for KRW 82bn.

NSSK

Six months after launch and two weeks after a JPY 250bn (USD 1.57bn) final close in April 2026, NSSK’s fourth flagship Japan buyout fund was more than 20% accounted for – one deal closed, one announced, and a third pending. Others have since been added to the list, which spans hospitality, construction equipment, and even professional sports. NSSK is writing larger cheques and intermittently appearing in processes alongside large-cap peers, consistent with the “golden age of buyout” narrative that underpinned the fundraise. At JPY 100bn, Fund III was two-thirds larger than Fund II yet was fully deployed within 2.5 years.