Private Equity Value Creation of Target Portfolio Companies

This study examines the topic of private equity, a subset of finance that deals with firms that attempt to improve another company through a leveraged buyout or equity investment. The goal of this paper is to understand whether private equity firms are helpful in the value creation of their portfolio companies. Value creation refers to either operational improvements or financial turnaround. Importantly, the focus of this study is from the perspective of portfolio companies rather than the private equity firms. As a result, the study examines metrics such as return on net operating assets (RNOA) to assess the operational health as well as Altman's Z-Score and Ohlson's O-Score to assess the financial health of a portfolio company. The observations come from a refined dataset of 35 portfolio companies, from immediately before the private equity buyout to after the company goes public again through an initial public offering (IPO).