The BVCA has recently conducted a survey of senior managers at portfolio companies that are back by private equity, and this report details the results from that survey.
Our survey found that 85% of respondents would recommend PE and VC to other business leaders, with 46% saying they would definitely do so, and another 39% very likely to do so. Other findings include:
• Ninety percent stated that private equity backing was beneficial to their business, with almost 40% reporting that it was highly beneficial.
• Senior managers of PE-backed businesses are confident that their companies will grow significantly over the next year, with almost 70% expecting turnover to increase and over 40% predicting employment growth.
• Around sixty percent of the respondents have also worked in senior roles at publicly owned companies. Eighty percent of these said that PE investors are more engaged with management teams than public shareholders.
• Sixty percent of those managers who have enjoyed similar roles at public companies also stated that private equity is better at goal setting whilst more than 60% felt private equity investors are more focused on achieving their targets than their public market equivalents.
• The survey also found that whilst PE investors are influential in financial planning and goal setting, they do not interfere with the day-to-day running of the business, giving management more freedom to make decisions and get on with the task of generating sales and managing the workforce.
November 2010
