Using the Burgiss dataset built from investors’ own records, Harris, Jenkinson and Kaplan found buyout fund outperformance versus the S&P 500 averaging twenty to twenty-seven percent over a fund’s life, more than three percent annually, robust across benchmarks, with venture a more cyclical story. The paper is also a lesson in data humility: earlier, gloomier conclusions partly reflected weaker databases.
The Institute’s reading: sellers should take two things. The industry buying companies like yours is, in aggregate, good at it, which is a reason for preparation rather than awe. And returns of that kind are earned partly at entry, in the price and terms you accept, which is the most practical argument on this shelf for competition and readiness on the sell side.