Breaking into a family affair

The main advantage of private equity backed companies over normal family businesses has always been their ability to focus on increasing the value of the company quickly. Speed of execution and focus on shareholder value is the name of the game. A recent report by Ernst & Young on the impact of PE ownership on corporate performance in Europe and the US reveals that PE increases the company value during the ownership tenure, and, even post-exiting. During PE ownership, the average value of PE owned companies increased by 26% compared to 12% for listed companies during the same period. More surprisingly, the growth of value in PE-backed companies continued after the PE fund sold its stake. Profits at the biggest US and European companies sold by private equity last year grew much faster than at their publicly listed rivals, supporting the buy-out industry’s claims of superior management skills, according to