A&M's latest report in partnership with Statista Q surveyed private equity leaders and portfolio company management across Germany, France and the U.K. to explore how they deliver transformational value creation plans (VCPs) for their businesses.

Private equity firms and their portfolio companies are launching VCPs early in the deal lifecycle, according to the survey, as today’s heated market challenges sponsors to achieve high returns to investors in an increasingly shorter timeframe. The findings of the research, based on interviews with 65 private equity executives and portfolio company management within the three countries, suggests there’s an urge to create transformational value starting on day one.

Value creation plans are introduced by financial sponsors to improve all aspects of operational performance of their portfolio companies. They focus on initiatives such as sales growth, productivity improvements in operations, strategic changes or brand/product repositioning and add-on acquisitions, as well as cost reduction, among others.

“A decade ago value creation programs were expected to last up to seven years, but we’re seeing more cases in recent years where this period has been shortened,” said Steffen Kroner, a Managing Director with A&M’s Private Equity Performance Improvement team in Germany. “This means that private equity firms, management teams and their advisors need to be working seamless together to find ways to drive value creation from the start of closing or even immediately after signing the deal.”

To read more about the research findings, download the report here.