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Journal of Banking & Finance Vol. 37 No. 7 2013

Drivers of holding period firm-level returns in private equity-backed buyouts

Petri Valkama1; Markku Maula1; Erkki Nikoskelainen2; Mike Wright3,4

1 Aalto University · 2 Hanken School of Economics · 3 Imperial College London · 4 Ghent University

Abstract

We extend the research on the drivers of holding period firm-level returns in private equity (PE)-backed buyouts by examining deal-, industry-, and macroeconomic-level drivers and their interaction. To conduct our study, we use a comprehensive and hand-collected dataset covering exited buyouts in the UK between 1995–2004, and we control for sample selection and investment risk. Our study shows that governance variables generally have a limited role in driving value creation but that use of a ratchet is positively related to both equity and enterprise value returns; we also find that leverage has a positive impact on median and top-quartile equity returns. Moreover, returns are driven by the size of the buyout and the acquisitions made during the holding period. With respect to macroeconomic and industry level factors, industry growth particularly drives buyout returns. However, the effect of industry growth is not uniform; its influence is particularly strong in insider-driven and divisional buyouts, in addition to top-quartile transactions.

DOI
10.1016/j.jbankfin.2013.01.042
Volume
37
Issue
7
Pages
2378-2391
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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