EY's seventh study of value creation in North America highlights the flexibility of the PE model and its ability to generate outperformance throughout an economic cycle – most recently from pre-crisis through the downturn and now into recovery.

The outperformance over comparable public markets is dramatic. In EY's sample of exits between 2006 and 2013, PE returned 2.4x over similar publicly listed companies, with PE’s strategic and operational expertise playing a key role.