Changes to Private Equity Info's M&A research database represent opportunities for M&A professionals, especially when they involve actionable predictive analytics.
Signals is our new tool that allows you to track events that are interesting to you as they are recorded in the database by our research team, direct to your inbox. This allows you to stay abreast of recent changes in the marketplace and run a steady drip of outreach built on real, actionable event triggers from the database.
Anticipate the PE exit
To win a sell-side mandate from a private equity firm looking to exit a portfolio company, investment bankers need to start building relationships with key executives long before that moment arrives. By the time a firm is actively looking to exit a portfolio company, the real relationship building has usually happened quietly for months, so the moment to reach out is well before that.
A Portfolio Company Aged signal puts a portfolio company and date in front of you before it turns up as an exit. The signal flags portfolio companies as they cross the 2-, 3-, 4- or 5-year hold mark, filtered to your industries or the sponsors you cover, giving you a timely, specific reason to reach out.
Know who just closed a platform, because an add-on is often next
A platform acquisition is often the first of several deals. The time to become the banker with a credible add-on idea starts when the platform deal closes, well before the sponsor begins looking.
Under stable market conditions, Private Equity Info data has shown the median time to a first add-on consistently falling between 12 and 18 months after the platform closes. The pace moves with the market: the median dropped to 9 months during the 2007 and 2011 boom periods and stretched to 23 months in 2024, the longest interval in two decades.
A New PE Platform Investment signal tells you when a deal closes, while you still have time to put together a credible add-on idea instead of a generic pitch. Read alongside the timing data, it gives you a sense of when the add-on search is likely to start and how current market conditions might shift it.
Know who else is already in the room
An IB Closes Deal signal flags recent transactions and the investment bank that advised on each one. Watched over a few cycles, those alerts show which banks keep turning up on a buyer’s deals, a more reliable read than guessing from who you’ve worked with before.
It cuts both ways. A buyer with no recent bank relationship in your target sector is open ground. One that has closed three deals with the same IB firm in two years has a bank it keeps coming back to. Knowing that before the first call lets you plan the pitch around it. The strongest approaches bring something the incumbent hasn’t: a fresh angle, a relationship the other bank lacks or a deal the buyer hasn’t yet seen.
Built on the same data behind your buyer lists
These signals aren’t a static list. Our research team updates the underlying records as deals close, logging tens of thousands of changes to portfolio companies, private equity firms and executive records every month. See the current numbers.
A buyer list tells you who is a realistic fit for a deal today. Signals shows you when the timing is right to reach out. Used together, they get you in front of a prospect before the mandate goes out to pitch, instead of after.
Aging portfolio companies, new platforms and recent bank-advised deals are just the start. Pick the sectors and sponsors you cover, and the next opportunity lands in your inbox.
Set up your first signal today.
