Over the past decade, a fascinating trend has emerged within private equity. Certain portfolio companies have been owned by multiple private equity firms over time, often trading hands every few years as new sponsors seek to extract additional value through operational improvements, strategic add-ons, or market repositioning.
These repeat transactions of the same companies offer a window into where private equity firms see consistent value creation potential, sectors that can deliver measurable performance gains across multiple ownership cycles.
As highlighted in our recent PE-to-PE deal flow study, many companies move through multiple sponsors over time, a report further explored in this analysis. Seventeen percent of all PE platform acquisitions in the last 10 years were PE-to-PE trades, making trades one of the most reliable and anchor sources of mid-market deal flow.
Our analysis of top buyer firms shows that some PE groups actively target assets with prior PE ownership, attracted by their proven management teams and well-documented financial performance.
The following firms demonstrate specialized expertise in taking already-optimized PE-owned businesses and scaling them further:
Certain industries naturally lend themselves to multiple ownership cycles due to predictable revenue, regulatory stability, and recurring demand. In our 10-year data, the most frequently traded industries include:
Books, magazines, educational materials, print media
Consulting, engineering, research, IT services
Industrial chemicals, specialty chemicals, coatings
Outsourcing, staffing, call centers, facility services
Diagnostic centers, specialized clinics, ambulatory care
Data centers, hosting, cloud platforms
Brokerages, wealth management, trading services
Niche consumer/industrial products made in small segments
Freight support, logistics operations, transport services
Packaged foods, ingredients, processing plants
Electricity, water, power distribution
Industrial machines, components, tools
Hobby shops, niche retail, non-grocery specialty stores
Electrical, plumbing, HVAC, specialty construction services
Banks, loan providers, financing services
These patterns reveal where value continues to compound, not just within a single investment cycle, but across multiple ownership transitions. For investors, identifying these companies signal stable, repeatable value creation opportunities and potential secondary or tertiary buyout plays.