AVCA is pleased to announce the publication of the 2017 Exit Study, How private equity investors create value. Presented by EY and AVCA, the study examines PE exits between 2007–16 using data drawn from both public sources and confidential interviews with former PE owners of exited businesses.

AVCA is pleased to announce the publication of the 2016 exit study, How private equity investors create value. Presented by EY and AVCA, the study examines PE exits between 2007–15 using data drawn from both public sources and confidential interviews with former PE owners of exited businesses.

The update to the 2013 AVCA and EY’s study Broadening horizons: how do private equity investors create value? highlights a strengthening market for private equity exits in Africa. Private equity firms exited 40 companies between 1 January and 31 December 2014, a 38% increase from 29 exits in 2013.

This is the second of our annual studies of how private equity (PE) investors create value in Africa. In our inaugural report, we countered popular opinion about PE in Africa to prove that the industry was making excellent progress in exiting its portfolio companies. We also provided evidence of genuine value creation by PE firms in the region through hands-on involvement in the companies they back.

This joint research piece, looking at value creation through exit deals across Africa, provides an answer to the commonly asked question “are there exits in Africa?” The continent’s stock markets, other than the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, are still very small and relatively illiquid, and the intermediary networks remain far from complete across the region. As a result, a widely held perception is that exits are hard to achieve and that therefore they are few in number. However, our analysis points to a higher level of exit activity than might be expected.