The BVCA, in association with EY, publishes an annual report on the performance of portfolio companies, a group of large, private equity owned UK businesses that met defined criteria at the time of acquisition. Its publication is one of the steps adopted by the private equity industry following the publication of guidelines by Sir David Walker in 2008 to improve transparency and disclosure, under the oversight of the Private Equity Reporting Group (“PERG”).
The reports address many questions that various stakeholders may have on the impact of private equity ownership on large UK businesses, by presenting facts and benchmarks to provide answers. Each report is designed to be read stand-alone, summarising the accumulated data over previous years of reporting; it also contains comparisons to earlier year’s results and, for some measures, shows time series trends.
Annual report on the performance of portfolio companies, XVII – December 2024
The 17th Annual Report covers 90 portfolio companies (as defined according to criteria set by the PERG) as at the 2023 financial reporting year (2022: 81), as well as a further 119 portfolio companies that have been owned and exited since 2005. The findings are based on aggregated information provided on the portfolio companies by the PE firms that own them —covering the entire period of private equity ownership. This year, data was received covering 75 portfolio companies, two companies have provided an explanation for non-compliance, and one company has been given a first year exemption, resulting in a compliance rate of 87% (2022: 83%). On many measures of performance, the data on the current portfolio is combined with data from portfolio companies exited in 2023 and earlier, which provides over 100 data points, typically measuring performance over several years.
With a large number of portfolio companies, a high rate of compliance, and 17 years of information, this report provides comprehensive and detailed information on the effect of PE ownership on many measures of performance of an independently determined group of large UK businesses.
