Private equity investors are holding portfolio companies longer than ever before, in aggregate. The trend holds across all nine industries we evaluated, just to differing degrees.
We follow the full cycle of private equity investments, from the date an investor buys a company to the date it exits. For this analysis we looked at 13,757 completed exits between 2021 and mid-2026, within nine industry categories.
For each deal, we measured the holding period, the number of years between investment and exit, and calculated the median for each industry in each year. Using the median rather than the average keeps a handful of unusually long holds from distorting the experience of the typical deal.
The typical investment now takes roughly a year longer to exit than it did five years ago, a meaningful shift for an industry built on a model that prizes the quick turning of capital back to LPs. More interestingly, this increase in hold periods is seen broadly across sectors.
Holding periods have climbed across each of the nine industries we evaluated.
Even Technology, Business Services, and Financial Services, historically among the quickest sectors to return capital, have stretched from 4.5 years to 5.8 - 6.0 years.
Tap or click any industry in the legend to show or hide its line.
While there are some variances (for example, Technology companies maintained a relatively low hold period until 2024), the lengthening trend is broad-based and mostly industry agnostic. The factors driving the increase appear to be affecting most industries. In other words, this looks more like a macroeconomic phenomenon rather than an industry-specific one.
Higher interest rates since 2022 made financing more expensive, widening the gap between the returns sellers need and the prices buyers are willing to pay. Many investors have chosen to hold and continue working the asset rather than sell into a soft market.
| Industry | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 YTD | Total exits |
| Healthcare Services |
4.7
n=271
|
4.6
n=177
|
6.1
n=132
|
5.3
n=140
|
6.6
n=181
|
6.1 *
n=82
|
983 |
| Consumer & Retail |
5.2
n=295
|
5.1
n=230
|
6.3
n=135
|
6.3
n=247
|
6.5
n=212
|
6.9 *
n=81
|
1,200 |
| Transportation & Logistics |
5.3
n=105
|
4.8
n=97
|
5.5
n=71
|
5.8
n=81
|
6.5
n=79
|
5.8 *
n=39
|
472 |
| Building Products & Construction Services |
4.8
n=152
|
4.9
n=108
|
5.4
n=104
|
5.6
n=120
|
6.2
n=88
|
5.7 *
n=53
|
625 |
| Industrials & Manufacturing |
5.1
n=875
|
5.2
n=611
|
5.9
n=561
|
6.0
n=706
|
6.0
n=613
|
6.3 *
n=291
|
3,657 |
| Energy & Environmental Services |
5.6
n=187
|
6.0
n=128
|
5.5
n=129
|
6.0
n=168
|
6.0
n=142
|
6.7 *
n=82
|
836 |
| Business & Professional Services |
4.6
n=554
|
4.8
n=418
|
5.3
n=357
|
5.4
n=438
|
5.7
n=435
|
6.0 *
n=215
|
2,417 |
| Technology |
4.5
n=626
|
4.5
n=462
|
4.6
n=348
|
5.3
n=505
|
5.6
n=447
|
5.8 *
n=198
|
2,586 |
| Financial Services |
4.4
n=226
|
4.8
n=163
|
5.5
n=112
|
6.0
n=195
|
5.6
n=201
|
5.8 *
n=84
|
981 |
Figures are medians, in years; n = number of exits. * 2026 is a partial year. Industries sorted by 2025 median.
It helps to remember that 2021 was not normal. Powered by cheap money, 2021 was an unusually deal-heavy year with PE investments and exits both up roughly 50% compared to the surrounding years.
The fact that hold periods are still rising in 2026 across all industries studied suggests a genuine backlog: a growing stock of aging companies that investors bought during the boom years and have not yet been able to sell at valuations they are willing to accept.
Two things will shape where this goes. The first is the direction of rates and valuations. If financing eases and the gap between buyers and sellers narrows, some of the pressure should ease and exits should pick up. The second is the backlog itself. Even in a friendlier market, the sheer number of assets waiting to be sold will take time to clear, which could keep holding periods elevated longer than a simple rate story might suggest.
For dealmakers, the practical effects are already visible. Limited partners are pressing for distributions, and investors are turning to continuation funds and other GP-led deals to return capital without a traditional sale. On the buy side, a large pool of seasoned assets that have been held longer than originally planned is exactly the kind of inventory that can fuel secondary activity and, eventually, a wave of exits once conditions turn.
Short descriptions of what each sector broadly contains, for context.
Care delivery and healthcare support, spanning physician and specialty groups, outpatient and home-based care, and services that sit around providers.
Consumer-facing brands, products and retail or distribution businesses across food, beverage and general consumer goods.
Freight, distribution and transport infrastructure, including third-party logistics providers and specialized carriers.
Manufacturers of building materials and products alongside construction, installation and specialty trade services tied to the built environment.
Makers of machinery, equipment, components and other manufactured goods. Capital-intensive businesses that typically rely on debt financing and strategic or sponsor buyers to exit.
Energy production and oilfield or utility-adjacent services, together with environmental, waste and sustainability businesses.
Outsourced B2B services, including consulting, staffing, marketing, IT services and facilities.
Software, SaaS, data and technology-enabled services.
Insurance, asset and fund services, payments and fintech, plus other businesses that sit around the financial system.
See how this trend is playing out in your sectors. Track exits and transaction activity with Private Equity Info.