Best of LinkedIn: Private Equity: Value Creation CW 38/39 2026

Private equity's playbook is visibly shifting from financial engineering toward operating discipline. Leadership quality and structure, not capital or pedigree, are being treated as the primary lever on outcomes, AI spend is moving from pilot to portfolio-wide infrastructure, and the return math itself has changed as multiple expansion fades and operational execution takes its place.

Date

September 29, 2026

Private Equity: Value Creation

Thomas Allgeyer

Methodology: Every two weeks we collect most relevant posts on LinkedIn for selected topics and create an overall summary only based on these posts. If you´re interested in the single posts behind, you can find them here: https://linktr.ee/thomasallgeyer. Have a great read!

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If you prefer listening, check out our podcast summarizing the most relevant insights from Private Equity: Value Creation CW 38/ 39:

CFO Hiring and Structure

CFO hiring is shifting from scale credentials to speed and cash discipline
Weak CFO performance often traces to missing operating structure, not talent
First-time CFO appointments are rising as AI reshapes finance roles
Incentive design is shifting to annual EBITDA-percentage structures

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Executive Search and Succession

Shore Capital builds CEOs internally through a structured CXO rotation program
Sequencing now runs plan, then capabilities, then roles, before the org chart changes
Executive success now hinges on evidence of past execution, not pedigree
Sponsors are planning CEO succession from day one, not reacting mid-hold
CEO resistance remains a barrier to appointing Chief Transformation Officers

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First-100-Days Execution

Execution in the first 100 days, not the strategy, now drives value creation success
Unrealistic 100-day plans plus poor data quality are directly linked to weaker exits
Playbooks now tie durable value creation to disciplined planning, governance, and speed

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Pricing and Revenue Growth

Pricing and packaging remain a high-impact, underused lever
Dedicated pricing advisory practices are now launching for PE-backed software firms
Revenue growth now drives 57 percent of value creation, nearly double its 2019 share
Operational margin improvement drives over half of portfolio EBITDA growth

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AI Adoption and Organization

Blackstone's Anthropic spend rose 21x in a year; Clearlake added Databricks, OpenAI, Google Cloud, and Anthropic partnerships in a month
Firms with a dedicated AI value-creation leader jumped from 7 to 32 percent in a year
Stalled AI value is consistently traced to leadership and structure, not the technology
Scaling AI value needs one unified operating model, not scattered pilots
Durable competitive advantage still lags despite the adoption surge

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Capital Markets and Returns

Multiple expansion drove just 8 percent of 2025 buyout returns, down from 46 percent
Entry price discipline, not market tailwinds, now determines buyout fund returns
Middle-market deals between $25M and $100M rose 56 percent in count in Q2
The largest PE investors show a persistent regional home bias

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Notable Deals and Transactions

Grant Thornton acquired CBIZ, building a large-scale professional services platform
L Catterton bought a stake in HYROX from Infront
Vidia Equity acquired H&G to build a recycling technology platform
Summa Equity reported 44 percent EBITDA growth across its portfolio

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Thanks to Mark Jansen, Shannon Talbot, Tim Gerrells, Shaun Stevens, Lindsay Guzowski, Zachary Wingett, Trevear Thomas, Jason Shaw, Reed Gaskin, Nikki Newton, Robert Friedman, Chris Barber, Jacob Furbee, Ricky Jain, Lance DeWitt, Helana Robbins Huddleston, Lucas Bechtle, Guillermo Flor, Fred Ebrahemi, Jimmy Bijlani, Chris Immelman, Asif Rahman, Erik Boender, Jim Bailey, Uttaran Chakrabarti, Christopher DiNitto, Philipp Kraft, Miles Feinberg, Steve Budd, Ashley van Heel, Antoine Munfakh, Matt Heinz, Sam Tidswell-Norrish, Andrii Gorokhov, Jonathan O'Leary, Maeve Foley, Yannick Elhag, Jason Spencer, Alex Glueckler, Sebastian Esser, Stephanie Caspar, Nicola Ebmeyer, Maria Campos Silva, Chris Reilly, and more for contributing insights to this edition.

Find the full list of posts and voices on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/best-linkedin-cw-38-39-private-equity-value-creation-thomas-allgeyer-f474e/

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Frequently asked questions

Where do private equity returns come from now?

From operations, not multiples. Multiple expansion drove just 8 percent of 2025 buyout returns, down from 46 percent. Revenue growth now drives 57 percent of value creation, nearly double its 2019 share, and operational margin improvement drives over half of portfolio EBITDA growth.

How is PE adopting AI across portfolios?

Fast, and at platform level. Blackstone's Anthropic spend rose 21x in a year, and Clearlake added Databricks, OpenAI, Google Cloud and Anthropic partnerships in a month. Firms with a dedicated AI value-creation leader jumped from 7 to 32 percent in a year, though stalled AI value traces back to leadership and structure.

What do PE sponsors look for in a portfolio company CFO?

Speed and cash discipline over scale credentials. Weak CFO performance often traces to missing operating structure rather than talent. First-time CFO appointments are rising as AI reshapes finance roles, and incentive design is shifting to annual EBITDA-percentage structures.

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