Private Equity Reporting Group publishes UK Private Equity Annual Public Reports
The UK Private Equity Annual Public Reports bring together three separate annual reports which seek to provide enhanced transparency and disclosures by some of the largest UK portfolio companies and their private equity owners.
Specifically, they fall within the scope of the Walker Guidelines, first established in 2007, which provides the framework for the private equity industry to disclose information relating to UK-based portfolio companies and encourage a greater level of disclosure across the industry. The publication of the reports aims to present independently prepared information clearly and simply, to inform the broader business and public debate on the impact of private equity ownership on large businesses.
The ‘Annual Report of the Private Equity Reporting Group’, the ‘Good Practice Reporting Guide for portfolio companies’, and the ‘Annual Report on the performance of portfolio companies’ are the 15th in a series of yearly reports compiled by and for the Private Equity Reporting Group (PERG), the independent body setup to assess the industry on behalf of the British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA). Collectively, the three reports demonstrate the private equity industry’s commitment to good practice financial reporting.
Making the industry’s annual reports more accessible
As well as publishing each of the reports separately, this year the key findings have been brought together in one simple overview, as the Private Equity Annual Public Reports. For the first time, all reports and key metrics will be available via a new microsite to make the information more readily available.
In addition, the annual reporting process has been expanded to include sector breakdowns on certain data points, including changes in growth, productivity and financial leverage that portfolio companies experience under private equity ownership. In terms of debt, for example, the reports set out clearly and simply the average levels of financial leverage in portfolio companies at acquisition and then at exit or the time of reporting.
Michael Moore, BVCA Director General, added:
“Questions have been raised about the value and sustainability of private equity investment in the UK. Today, the industry is responding to those questions. When presented with a similar challenge in 2007, the Private Equity Reporting Group – the independent body responsible improving disclosure and transparency in private equity – delivered the Walker Guidelines, and today the reports are refreshed for a new decade. The renewed approach helps provide a better understanding of the industry and tell a clearer story about its role in the UK economy. The BVCA wholeheartedly endorses the renewed Guidelines and believes that greater transparency will bring with it greater trust in the industry.”
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