The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that an atmosphere of caution muted the pace of private equity deals in Canada last year as buyout firms grappled with the impact of inflation and high interest rates, while sellers of companies continued to chase lofty prices. The Globe's James Bradshaw writes that deals still got done, with 441 transactions completed in Canada, according to a report from law firm McCarthy Tetrault LLP. However, broken deals were more common, and that has forced private equity players to be more creative. The volume of activity last year was similar to that in 2017 and 2018, just before a three-year frenzy of dealmaking that ran through 2021. The market has cooled considerably since then, and large transactions have been rare. Most of last year's deals -- about 70 per cent -- were add-ons to an existing company in a private equity portfolio. The total value of Canadian private equity deals for the year up to Dec. 5 inched higher to $16-billion, from $14-billion in 2022, a sharp drop-off from prior years. Major funds closed by large firms accounted for the lion's share of that total. Brookfield Asset Management raised $12-billion (U.S.) for its latest flagship private equity fund.