Private equity investors commit capital with an expected path to its return: buy a company, improve it, and sell it when the work has created enough value. That timetable has lengthened. Companies are taking longer to sell, and investors are waiting for capital they had expected to put back to work.
Bain & Company’s exit data show how much that timetable has changed: global buyout companies sold in 2025 had been held for around seven years on average, compared with five to six years during 2010–2021.1 In this report, CapitalPad Research compares published holding-period benchmarks, examines the backlog of unsold companies to explain what is prolonging ownership, and calculates how those additional years affect annualized returns.
Average global buyout hold at exit
Assets sold in 2025 · Bain.1
Unsold buyout-backed companies globally
2025 data · Bain’s 2026 report.1
Annual PE distributions as a share of net asset value
Four straight years through 2025 · Bain.1
How long do private equity firms hold companies?
Global buyout companies exited in 2025 had been held for about seven years on average, according to Bain.1 Separate 2024 global private equity benchmarks were lower: Preqin reported a 6.1-year average,6 and With Intelligence a 5.4-year median.9 These figures describe different datasets and measures, rather than a single market-wide holding-period range.
| Measure | Holding period | Period & source |
|---|---|---|
| Average global buyout hold at exit | About 7 years | 2025 · Bain1 |
| Average global private equity hold at exit | 6.1 years | 2024 · Preqin via S&P Global6 |
| Average North American buyout hold at exit | 7.1 years | 2023, through mid-November · Preqin via S&P Global7 |
| Median global private equity hold at exit | 5.4 years | 2024 · With Intelligence9 |
| Average age of still-held global buyout companies | More than 6.5 years | 2025 · McKinsey8 |
| Median age of still-held U.S. private equity companies | 3.9 years | Q3 2025 · PitchBook12 |
Compiled and compared by CapitalPad Research using the providers identified in each row. At-exit measures exclude unsold companies; still-held measures describe the remaining inventory. The rows do not form a continuous historical series.
What a holding period measures
A private equity holding period runs from the acquisition of a portfolio company to the exit. That exit may be a sale to a strategic buyer or another sponsor, an IPO followed by a sell-down, or a transaction that provides investor liquidity while the sponsor remains involved.
The familiar three-to-five-year range describes the traditional ownership window. StepStone used that range in its 2021 investor guide, while a 2015 Harvard Business School survey found that PE firms commonly modeled investments over five years. Those expectations help explain why a roughly seven-year realized hold changes the investment experience.4, 5
A company’s hold is also different from a fund’s life. A typical buyout fund has a ten-year term, with capital invested over its early years and returned as individual companies exit. The last holdings can keep investors committed well beyond any one company’s original target.
How private equity holding periods have changed
Private equity holding periods have lengthened within comparable provider series. In Preqin’s North American buyout data, average holds at exit were about 4.9 years over the decade through 2013 and 5.8 years over 2014–2023. The 2023 reading reached 7.1 years through mid-November, the longest in that dataset since at least 2000.7
With Intelligence’s global private equity series shows median holds at exit increasing from 4.3 years in 2017 to 5.4 years in 2024, followed by the first annual decline in five years in 2025. A recent decline therefore sits within a longer period of extended ownership.9
Private equity companies exited within four years
Share of U.S. PE-backed companies sold within four years, by acquisition year.
Source: PitchBook, October 2025 analysis.12
PitchBook’s October 2025 cohort analysis found that only 16.6% of U.S. private-equity-backed companies acquired in 2021 had exited within four years, versus 32.3% of companies acquired in 2017 at the same age. Among older investments, 37.1% of the 2017 cohort remained unsold near the end of year eight, compared with 26.4% of the 2012 cohort at the same point.12
Why shorter holds at exit can coexist with an aging backlog
A shorter median hold among completed exits does not mean the backlog is clearing. With Intelligence recorded a decline in the global median hold at exit in 2025.9 Bain found that exits were concentrated among stronger assets and that almost 40% of buyout-backed companies had been held for more than five years.1 When buyers favor the strongest companies, the ones that sell can register shorter holds while older companies stay in portfolios.
The private equity exit backlog
Bain’s 2026 Global Private Equity Report put the global unsold buyout inventory at roughly 32,000 companies, with $3.8 trillion in unrealized value as of Q2 2025.1 Bain’s 2025 report had counted about 29,000 companies worth $3.6 trillion.15 In June 2026, Reuters reported a newer Bain conference estimate of approximately 33,000 unsold companies.3
| Reported period | Unsold companies | Unrealized value | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | — | $3.2 trillion | Bain 2024 report16 |
| 2024 | About 29,000 | $3.6 trillion | Bain 2025 report15 |
| 2025 readings | About 32,000 | $3.8 trillion Value as of Q2 2025 | Bain 2026 report1 |
| June 2026 commentary | About 33,000 | — | Bain, reported by Reuters3 |
Compiled and compared by CapitalPad Research. Underlying figures: Bain’s global buyout inventory reports and Reuters coverage of Bain’s June 2026 commentary. The later count is not a new annual-report observation. Company counts exclude add-ons where stated by Bain.
The size of the inventory matters, but its age is just as consequential. McKinsey reported that more than 16,000 buyout-backed companies had been held for over four years in 2025. Those companies made up about 52% of the global inventory, the highest share on record and roughly ten percentage points above the preceding five-year average.8 Bain separately found that almost 40% of buyout-backed companies had been held for more than five years in its 2025 data, up from 29% in 2019.1
The U.S. inventory was also aging. PitchBook counted nearly 12,900 PE-backed companies at Q3 2025 and reported a 3.9-year median age for still-held assets, up from 3.0 years in 2022. The unusually large 2021 and 2022 acquisition cohorts can keep that median relatively low even while older holdings remain unsold.12, 15
Reducing that inventory requires a sustained flow of exits. A few large realizations can lift reported exit value while leaving most of the company backlog in place.
Additional estimates of the unsold inventory
KPMG’s 2025 research estimated more than $3.0 trillion in the exit pipeline. PwC’s mid-2025 estimate, reported by Reuters, covered $3 trillion invested across 30,000 companies: 30% of current investments had been held more than five years, and about $1 trillion sat in assets that would ordinarily already have returned capital. These estimates use their own populations and methods.11, 17
Reuters Breakingviews reported that the value of unsold assets had more than doubled after 2019. It also calculated that buyout-backed IPOs and sales to corporate acquirers had equaled about one-third of portfolio value annually in the five years before the pandemic, versus less than one-fifth on average since 2020.27
Why are private equity holding periods getting longer?
Private equity firms are holding companies longer because valuation gaps, financing constraints, and uneven buyer demand make exits harder to complete. Sellers need a price that justifies the investment; buyers need a business and financing package that work at that price. When the two cannot be reconciled, ownership continues.
Buyout exit value recovered while exit count fell
Bain reported that global buyout-backed exit value rose 47% to $717 billion in 2025, while exit count fell 2% to 1,570 transactions. Seven exits above $10 billion contributed $155 billion, or 22% of the total value.1
Buyout exit value and count in 2025
Global buyout-backed exits. Changes from the previous year.
$717 billion
1,570 transactions
Source: Bain, Global Private Equity Report 2026.1
Corporate buyers were an important source of liquidity: strategic exit value grew 66% in 2025. Sponsor-to-sponsor exit value grew 21% globally, but the North American result depended heavily on the Aligned Data Centers transaction. Without that deal, the region’s sponsor-to-sponsor exit value would have fallen 19%.1
That concentration matters to a company approaching sale. The existence of a few willing buyers at the top of the market says relatively little about the buyer pool for a different business, sector, or size band.
Exit momentum has since stalled again. Bain’s June 2026 midyear report described renewed pressure from software repricing, private-credit stress, and geopolitical uncertainty, with stronger assets still accounting for much of the exit activity that did clear.2
Entry valuations and acquisition financing
McKinsey reported that the median PE entry purchase multiple increased from 11.3x EBITDA in 2024 to 11.8x in 2025. Companies acquired at demanding valuations need enough earnings growth to support an acceptable sale price, while buyers must also account for the cost and availability of debt.8
For entry-pricing comparisons by company size and industry, see the lower middle market EBITDA multiples guide.
Pressure to return capital to investors
Bain reported that private equity distributions remained below 15% of net asset value (NAV) for four consecutive years through 2025; the reading for the twelve months through Q3 2025 was roughly 14%. Low distributions limit the cash investors have available for new commitments.1
Investors also care about the price at which that capital is returned. Bain’s June 2026 midyear report cited an Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA) poll in which most limited partners began losing confidence in a general partner when a full exit occurred at a discount of more than 5% to the last valuation mark. That helps explain why pressure to sell does not always produce a transaction.2
Earlier exit-market readings and their scope
Preqin data reported by S&P Global put global PE exit value at $392.48 billion across 2,227 exits in 2024. Trade sales accounted for $193.6 billion across 1,177 transactions, secondary buyouts for 38% of value, and IPOs for 12%. That broader PE series differs from Bain’s buyout-backed exit series.6
PitchBook reported $621.7 billion of U.S. exit value across 1,300 exits through October 2025, compared with $379.6 billion across 1,369 exits in full-year 2024. The partial-year cutoff matters when comparing those totals.12
In PwC’s May 2025 Pulse Survey, 30% of respondents had paused or revisited deals because of tariff concerns. Reuters reported broader M&A activity of 4,535 deals totaling $567 billion through May. These figures provide context for transaction uncertainty, rather than a separate holding-period measure.17
What a longer holding period does to private equity returns
The same private equity investment multiple produces a lower annualized return when it takes longer to earn. An investment can return twice the original equity capital and still deliver a very different annualized result depending on whether the proceeds arrive in year four or year eight.
Annualized return on a 2.0x investment multiple
Illustration: one initial investment and one payment at exit, before fees and taxes. No interim cash flows.
CapitalPad calculates that a 2.0x investment multiple produces an 18.9% annualized return over four years and 9.1% over eight years. The calculation assumes one initial investment and one payment at exit, before fees and taxes, with no interim distributions or additional investment. The investment doubles in either case; the longer hold spreads that gain over twice as much time. Earning the same 18.9% a year over eight years would require a 4.0x multiple.
Actual cash flows can change the result. Interim distributions return some capital earlier, additional investment changes the amount at work, and private equity fees affect what the investor ultimately receives. The illustration isolates the effect of time; INSEAD’s work on private equity performance measurement explains why IRR is particularly sensitive to the timing of cash flows.21
Value creation during an extended hold
A longer private equity holding period can be worthwhile when the business keeps growing and the eventual proceeds compensate investors for waiting. The question is how much additional value those extra years produce.
Bain’s analysis of buyout fund vintages from 2000–2015 found that fund-level internal rate of return (IRR) began to stagnate around year seven and declined afterward, while median total value to paid-in capital (TVPI) flattened after year eight. Those are observations about fund performance over time, rather than a rule that any individual company should be sold in year seven.1
Higher entry prices and financing costs add to the operating challenge. Bain’s 2026 midyear illustration showed that a deal once able to reach a 2.5x return over five years with 5% EBITDA growth might now require 12% growth. A delayed exit adds another reason to test whether the company can continue increasing earnings and cash flow.2
Post-IPO holding periods for private equity sponsors
In this historical study, an IPO rarely ended the sponsor’s holding period. In the Long Goodbyes study of U.S. PE-backed companies that went public between 1995 and 2014, sponsors remained invested for around three years after the IPO on average, even though lockups typically ended after six months. Only 3% of general partners fully exited at the IPO.22
Full exits took an average of 2.5 years after lockup expiry, and in about a quarter of deals GP holdings had barely changed five years after listing. The authors estimated that a faster sell-down could have reduced total management fees and carried interest by about 20%, equivalent to at least $10 billion across the sample.22
Broader performance research cited in this report
Private equity holding periods by sector
Private equity buyout holding periods differ across sectors. Preqin Pro data reported by S&P Global in December 2025 put telecom and media at 7.27 years, energy and utilities at 6.96, industrials at 6.34, and consumer discretionary at 6.28. The analysis associated longer holds with larger companies requiring larger financing packages at exit.18
| Sector | Average holding period (years) |
|---|---|
| Telecom & media | 7.27 years |
| Energy & utilities | 6.96 years |
| Industrials | 6.34 years |
| Consumer discretionary | 6.28 years |
Preqin Pro’s earlier June 2025 sector snapshot, reported by S&P Global, illustrates how the sample can change the ranking. Industrials averaged 7.5 years, consumer discretionary 6.6, and healthcare 6.4; telecom and media stood at 9.2 years on a single deal. A sector average can inform a view of the market without becoming the target hold for a particular company.19
Continuation funds and investor liquidity
A private equity continuation fund allows a general partner (GP) to transfer a portfolio company from an existing fund into a new vehicle it manages. New investors supply capital, while existing limited partners (LPs) may take cash or roll their interests into the new vehicle. The transaction can end one investor’s holding period while extending the sponsor’s involvement with the company.20
GP-led secondaries, most of them continuation vehicles, reached $115 billion in 2025, up 53% year over year, according to Jefferies. They made up 48% of global secondaries volume, which reached a record $240 billion; LP-led transactions accounted for the other $125 billion. Nearly 80% of the top 100 sponsors by assets under management had completed a continuation vehicle transaction by 2025.20
| Year | Total secondary transaction volume |
|---|---|
| 2021 | $132 billion |
| 2024 | $162 billion |
| 2025 | $240 billion |
Continuation vehicles are growing quickly but remain a small share of exits. Bain found they grew 62% in 2025 and stayed below 10% of total private equity exit value.1 Jefferies put GP-led secondaries at approximately 14% of sponsor-backed exit volume.20 Bain’s continuation-vehicle estimate and Jefferies’ broader GP-led estimate use different transaction categories and exit-market denominators, so their shares should be read separately.
What longer holds mean for lower middle market investors
A global buyout average helps set expectations, but the actual holding period depends on the investment being made. A smaller operating business may have a different buyer pool, debt requirement, and route to exit from a large sponsor-owned company. CapitalPad’s research on independent sponsor holding periods reports survey and academic data for these smaller, deal-by-deal transactions.
Bain’s midyear deal-cost index, for example, covers U.S. large corporate LBOs with more than $50 million in EBITDA.2 CapitalPad’s target businesses typically have $5 million to $30 million in enterprise value and $1 million to $7 million in EBITDA.28 Those are materially different transaction sizes, even though both are exposed to financing costs, valuation gaps, and buyer caution.
Bain also observed greater buyer interest in companies with physical or labor-intensive operations and domestically oriented revenue in mid-2026. Those characteristics appear in many lower middle market businesses, but they do not establish a shorter holding period or a guaranteed exit.2
Holding-period exposure by investment structure
| Structure | What the investor holds | Where duration risk sits |
|---|---|---|
| Traditional PE fund | An interest in a fund that owns a portfolio of companies | Capital returns as holdings are realized; the final companies can extend the fund’s life. |
| Continuation vehicle | An interest in assets moved from an existing fund | The investor accepts a new ownership period and the terms of the transfer. |
| Deal-by-deal co-investment | An interest in a specific company through a deal vehicle | Liquidity depends on that company’s distributions, recapitalization, or exit. |
The University of California’s investment office disclosed that private equity partnerships generally take 10–14 years to fully liquidate. A fund commitment therefore exposes an investor to the portfolio’s distribution schedule, including its longest-held positions.26
Deal-by-deal investing makes the company and its proposed exit plan visible before the commitment. It also concentrates the holding-period risk in that business. Investors can assess the sponsor, entry price, financing, and likely buyers in advance; they still need the capacity to remain invested if the exit takes longer than planned.
CapitalPad is a private equity co-investment group through which accredited investors can invest in individual lower middle market independent sponsor transactions. CapitalPad takes minority equity positions, and its investments generally target holds of three to seven years. Investors review each opportunity and choose whether to participate; actual timing may be shorter or longer.28
Evaluating a private equity exit plan
A five-year exit target is most useful when the investment case also shows what happens if the sale arrives later. Bain’s 2025 data explain why that matters: extended buyout holds, a substantial inventory of older companies, and a recovery concentrated in larger exits.1
| Area | Question to test |
|---|---|
| Likely buyer | Which strategic buyers or financial sponsors could acquire this business at the expected exit size? |
| Delayed exit | How do the return and cash-flow cases change if a year-five sale becomes a year-seven or year-eight sale? |
| Debt maturity | Would the company need to refinance before that later exit, and on what assumptions? |
| Value creation | Can earnings and cash flow support the return without a higher exit multiple? |
| Investor liquidity | Can the investor remain committed if distributions and the final exit arrive later than expected? |
| Exit control | Who decides when to sell, and what rights do investors have if the sponsor proposes a recapitalization or a longer hold instead? |
These questions focus on timing. CapitalPad’s guide to evaluating an independent sponsor deal covers the rest of the review: the sponsor, the quality of the business, financing and fees, and investor rights.
Private equity holding period FAQ
What is the current average private equity holding period?
Global buyout companies exited in 2025 had been held for about seven years on average, according to Bain.1 Separate 2024 global private equity benchmarks were lower: Preqin reported a 6.1-year average,6 and With Intelligence a 5.4-year median.9 These figures describe different datasets and measures, rather than a single market-wide holding-period range.
Are private equity holding periods getting longer?
Private equity holding periods have extended over the longer term. Bain’s global buyout average of around seven years for exits in 2025 compares with five to six years during 2010–2021.1 Individual measures can move differently: With Intelligence reported that the global median hold at exit declined in 2025 for the first time in five years.9
How big is the private equity exit backlog?
Bain’s 2026 annual report put the global backlog at about 32,000 unsold buyout-backed companies, with $3.8 trillion in unrealized value as of Q2 2025.1 Reuters reported a newer Bain conference estimate of roughly 33,000 companies in June 2026.3 The figures have different reporting dates and should not be treated as simultaneous counts.
Are private equity exits recovering?
Global buyout-backed exit value recovered in 2025, but exit count did not. Bain reported $717 billion in exit value, up 47% year over year, across 1,570 exit transactions, down 2%, with larger exits contributing heavily to the dollar total.1 The recovery then lost momentum: Bain’s June 2026 midyear report described exit activity as stalled again.2
How do continuation funds affect holding periods?
Continuation funds can give existing investors a liquidity option while the sponsor continues managing the company in a new vehicle. They can end the holding period for an investor who cashes out and extend ownership for one who rolls into the new fund.20
How do longer holding periods affect returns?
At the same private equity investment multiple, a longer hold reduces the annualized return. CapitalPad calculates that a 2.0x multiple produces 18.9% annually over four years and 9.1% over eight years, assuming one initial investment and one exit payment, before fees and taxes, with no interim distributions or additional investment. Earning the same 18.9% a year over eight years would require a 4.0x multiple.
Is the lower middle market affected by the same slowdown?
Partly. Lower middle market deals face the same financing costs, valuation gaps, and buyer caution, but the main holding-period benchmarks cover the broad buyout market, and a smaller company may have a different buyer pool and financing requirement. For a lower middle market investment, the specific company, debt structure, sponsor, and exit plan say more about duration risk than a global average.2,28
What should investors ask about a proposed holding period?
To evaluate a proposed private equity holding period, ask who could buy the company, what financing that buyer would need, when the company’s debt matures, and how the return changes if the sale is delayed. The investment case should also show whether the business can keep creating value throughout the additional ownership period.
Sources and methodology
CapitalPad Research prepared this report’s private equity holding-period comparisons and charts from published market data and academic research. The report’s return example is CapitalPad Research’s illustration of how a longer hold affects annualized returns.
| Research cutoff | Publications through June 2026, with underlying observations from full-year and partial-year datasets. The specific cutoffs are identified below. |
|---|---|
| Market coverage | Primarily global and North American buyout-backed companies. Broad-market benchmarks do not isolate lower middle market investments. |
Source coverage
- Holding-period and portfolio benchmarks
- Bain, PitchBook, Preqin, With Intelligence, and KPMG supply the holding-period and portfolio benchmarks used here. Preqin and With Intelligence figures reported by S&P Global are attributed to those providers.1, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13
- Exit markets and liquidity
- McKinsey and Jefferies provide research on exits and secondary-market activity. Reuters supplies the later conference commentary cited alongside Bain’s annual-report backlog.3, 8, 20
- Academic research
- The Long Goodbyes study supplies the post-IPO ownership findings, based on 564 fund investments in 330 U.S. PE-backed companies that went public between 1995 and 2014. Broader performance studies use different populations: the Harvard paper examines private equity relative to public markets;23 Boston College examines whole public pension portfolios;24 and the CalPERS result cited in SEC remarks covers one private equity portfolio over one fiscal year.25 Those comparisons are not used to estimate the effect of holding periods.
How differing figures are compared
Holding periods at exit exclude companies still in the portfolio. An average, a median, and the age of unsold holdings therefore cannot be treated as the same benchmark.
Bain’s roughly 32,000 unsold companies in its 2026 annual report and the roughly 33,000 reported from June 2026 conference commentary concern different reporting dates.1, 3
| Period | Reported figure | Measure & source |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 4.9 years | Median U.S. private equity hold at exit · PitchBook13 |
| 2020 | 4.5 years | Median global buyout hold at exit · Bain14 |
| 2022 | 5.7 years | Average North American buyout hold at exit · Preqin via S&P Global7 |
| 2023 | 6.2 years | Average global private equity hold at exit · Preqin via S&P Global6 |
| 2025 | Above 5 years | Reported global private equity median holds at exit versus 4–4.6 years in 2017–2019 · With Intelligence via S&P Global10 |
| 2025 report | Above 6 years | Median global private equity hold in KPMG’s sample11 |
For example, PitchBook’s 4.9-year median describes U.S. private equity exits in 2019, while Preqin’s 6.2-year average describes global private equity exits in 2023. Their different measures and populations prevent treating the gap as a like-for-like increase.6, 13
Research dates and return example
PitchBook’s 2025 inventory and exit readings run through Q3 or October; the 2023 North American average runs through mid-November; and Bain’s midyear 2026 activity data runs through May 18.
The return example assumes one initial investment and a single payment at exit, with no additional contributions or interim distributions. Returns are shown before fees and taxes.
Cite this research
This CapitalPad Research report compares private equity holding-period benchmarks, examines the exit backlog, and explains the implications for investor liquidity. The report also calculates how longer holding periods reduce annualized returns when the investment multiple remains unchanged.
When using information from this report, cite CapitalPad Research and link to this page.
CapitalPad Research, “Private Equity Holding Periods: Why Exits Are Taking Longer.” Updated October 9, 2026.
Sources & references
- Bain & Company, “Private Equity Outlook 2026: Gaining Traction,” Global Private Equity Report 2026. https://www.bain.com/insights/outlook-gaining-traction-global-private-equity-report-2026/
- Bain & Company, “Control the Controllable, Weather the Rest: Private Equity Midyear Report 2026” (June 8, 2026). https://www.bain.com/insights/private-equity-midyear-report-2026/
- Reuters, “Slow exits, tighter cash flow hang over private equity at Berlin conference” (June 11, 2026). https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/slow-exits-tighter-cash-flow-hang-over-private-equity-berlin-conference-2026-06-11/
- Gompers, Kaplan & Mukharlyamov, “What Do Private Equity Firms Say They Do?,” Harvard Business School Working Paper 15-081 (2015). https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/15-081_9baffe73-8ec2-404f-9d62-ee0d825ca5b5.pdf
- StepStone Group, “A Comprehensive Guide to Private Equity Investing” (2021). https://www.stepstonegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/A_Comprehensive_Guide_to_Private_Equity_Investing.pdf
- Preqin data, reported by S&P Global Market Intelligence, “Private equity exit value falls to 5-year low” (January 2025). https://www.spglobal.com/market-intelligence/en/news-insights/articles/2025/1/private-equity-exit-value-falls-to-5year-low-86896433
- Preqin Pro data, reported by S&P Global Market Intelligence, “Private equity buyout funds show longest holding periods in 2 decades” (November 2023). https://www.spglobal.com/market-intelligence/en/news-insights/articles/2023/11/private-equity-buyout-funds-show-longest-holding-periods-in-2-decades-79033309
- McKinsey & Company, “Private Equity: Clearer View, Tougher Terrain,” Global Private Markets Report 2026. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/private-capital/our-insights/global-private-markets-report/private-equity
- With Intelligence, “Private Equity Outlook 2026: The Beginning of a Durable Recovery.” https://www.withintelligence.com/insights/private-equity-outlook-2026/
- With Intelligence data, reported by S&P Global Market Intelligence, “Global private equity exit volume declines in Q1 2026” (April 2026). https://www.spglobal.com/market-intelligence/en/news-insights/articles/2026/4/global-private-equity-exit-volume-declines-in-q1-2026-100418326
- KPMG, “Value Creation in Private Equity” (October 2025). https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmgsites/xx/pdf/2025/10/value-creation-in-private-equity.pdf
- PitchBook, “2026 US Private Equity Outlook” (data through Q3 and October 2025). https://pitchbook.brightspotcdn.com/39/d6/c95f31104a96a8376a8ac9afd087/2026-us-private-equity-outlook.pdf
- PitchBook, “Extended Holding Periods in PE,” Analyst Note (Q1 2020; 2019 data). https://files.pitchbook.com/website/files/pdf/Q1_2020_PitchBook_Analyst_Note_Extended_Holding_Periods_in_PE.pdf
- Bain & Company, Global Private Equity Report 2021. https://www.bain.com/globalassets/noindex/2021/bain_report_2021-global-private-equity-report.pdf
- Bain & Company, “Private Equity Outlook 2025: Is a Recovery Starting to Take Shape?,” Global Private Equity Report 2025. https://www.bain.com/insights/outlook-is-a-recovery-starting-to-take-shape-global-private-equity-report-2025/
- Bain & Company, Global Private Equity Report 2024. https://www.bain.com/globalassets/noindex/2024/bain_report_global-private-equity-report-2024.pdf
- PwC estimates, reported by Reuters, “Private equity sits on $1 trillion amid uncertainties as M&A stalls” (June 2025). https://www.reuters.com/business/private-equity-sits-1-trillion-amid-uncertainties-ma-stalls-pwc-says-2025-06-18/
- Preqin Pro data, reported by S&P Global Market Intelligence, “Private equity buyouts record longer holding periods in 2025” (December 2025). https://www.spglobal.com/market-intelligence/en/news-insights/articles/2025/12/private-equity-buyouts-record-longer-holding-periods-in-2025-96348743
- Preqin Pro data, reported by S&P Global Market Intelligence, “Valuation mismatch prolongs private equity buyout holding periods” (June 2025). https://www.spglobal.com/market-intelligence/en/news-insights/articles/2025/6/valuation-mismatch-prolongs-private-equity-buyout-holding-periods-90848130
- Jefferies, “2025 Global Secondary Market Review: Another Record-Breaking Year” (February 2026). https://www.jefferies.com/insights/the-big-picture/2025-global-secondary-market-review-another-record-breaking-year/
- INSEAD Global Private Equity Initiative, “Measuring Private Equity Fund Performance” (2019). https://www.insead.edu/sites/default/files/assets/dept/centres/gpei/docs/Measuring_PE_Fund-Performance-2019.pdf
- Jenkinson, Jones, Rauch & Stucke, “Long Goodbyes: Why Do Private Equity Funds Hold Onto Public Equity?” (2020). https://www.darden.virginia.edu/sites/default/files/inline-files/JJRS%20Feb2020.pdf
- Harvard Business School Working Paper 24-066, “Does the Case for Private Equity Still Hold?” (2024). https://www.hbs.edu/ris/download.aspx?name=24-066.pdf
- Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, “How Do Public Pension Plan Returns Compare to Simple Index Investing?,” Issue Brief 24-13 (June 2024). https://crr.bc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/IB_24-13-1.pdf
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, remarks of Mark Uyeda on private markets (November 2025; CalPERS data). https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/uyeda-remarks-diversification-deficit-opening-401ks-private-markets-112025
- University of California Regents, private equity IRR disclosure (June 2021). https://www.ucop.edu/investment-office/_files/updates/pe_irr_06-30-21.pdf
- Reuters Breakingviews, “Buyout barons risk choking on their stuck assets” (March 2025), using Bain, Dealogic, and Preqin data. https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/buyout-barons-risk-choking-their-stuck-assets-2025-03-13/
- CapitalPad, Investor Overview. https://capitalpad.com/invest/
