Rollcall

Americas

L Catterton: Peloton

With L Catterton’s backing, Peloton grew its product range beyond connected at-home exercise bikes to provide broader content and equipment options to subscribers and commercial customers. Find out more here.

New Mountain Capital: Equian

New Mountain Capital’s focus on tech investment and strategic acquisitions helped transform Equian into a tech-enabled leader in the US payment integrity market. Find out more here.

Riverside Company: Censis Technologies

Growing the sales function was key to Censis Technologies’ expansion into the underpenetrated surgical inventory management software market under Riverside’s ownership. Find out more here.

Riverside Company: Health and Safety Institute

Four acquisitions helped widen Health and Safety Institute’s training and compliance services during Riverside Company’s holding period. Find out more here.

EMEA

Horizon Capital: Purcari Wineries

Horizon Capital successfully pivoted from a growth to a turnaround investment after a Russian ban on Moldovan wine imports shut down Purcari Wineries’ largest export market. Find out more here.

Insight Partners: Checkmarx

Software security firm Checkmarx expanded its international reach and customer base with the support of Insight’s operational value-add team. Find out more here.

KPS Capital Partners: Chassis Brakes International

Backed by KPS Capital Partners, Chassis Brakes International diversified its revenue base and extended its international reach. Find out more here.

Partners Group: Vermaat

With the support of Partners Group, catering services company Vermaat added more than 172 high-footfall food and beverage locations and entered the German market. Find out more here.

Asia-Pacific

Affinity Equity Partners: Velocity Frequent Flyer

Affinity was instrumental in enabling Virgin Australia’s loyalty programme, Velocity Frequent Flyer, to expand its redemption offers for members through a series of partnerships. Find out more here.

EQT: LBX Pharmacy

Store numbers increased more than 40-fold at LBX Pharmacy as EQT harnessed growth opportunities in the Chinese pharmacy retail market. Find out more here.

Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia: China Feihe

MSPEA’s hands-on approach with baby milk powder producer China Feihe helped deliver operational efficiencies while strengthening food safety management best practices. Find out more here.

NSSK: Vati

NSSK’s strong focus on talent development and inclusive recruitment practices boosted retention rates at nursing home operator Vati. Find out more here.

Awards process

How the winners were selected

In May-July this year, Private Equity International invited managers to send us their best examples of delivering operational value to portfolio companies. From small to large-cap deals, we called for submissions involving investments located across three regions: the Americas; Asia-Pacific; Europe, the Middle East and Africa. To be eligible, an investment must have been fully or partially realised on or after 1 June, 2019.

These submissions not only detailed key metrics, such as exit multiples, revenue and EBITDA growth, product line and geographic expansion, but also the story behind these numbers.

The entries were put before a panel of industry experts, who considered factors such as innovation, growth strategy, and environmental, social and governance initiatives. The judges were ultimately asked to score each entry for the overall level of operational excellence displayed, and the four submissions that achieved the highest score in each region, regardless of deal size, have received 2020’s Operational Excellence accolades.

We had a high standard of entries this year, resulting in some very close runs for the top spots. Our thanks go to all those who shared their value creation stories with us, and to the judges for their expertise and the time they dedicated to carefully reviewing the submissions.