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Private Equity Add-on Search Guide
Private Equity Add-on Search Guide

Mergr help guide for searching actively acquiring private equity backed companies, their owners, and add-on acquisitions.

Updated over 7 years ago

We're always analyzing new ways to search the M&A information we compile on Mergr.

One of our most recent updates is the ability to identify and focus on actively acquiring private equity backed companies. 

We've labeled this section 'PE Add-on Activity' and it's designed to provide a consolidated view into,

  1. The Private Equity Owner (or owners)

  2. The Platform Company (including when it was acquired, for how much, etc.)

  3. The Add-ons the platform company has done (most recent listed first)

The benefit to users is the ability to search based on any or multiple types of records above. 

Sample searches now possible include - 

  1. Identify the current platform companies of The BlackStone Group that have acquired at least one other company.

  2. Search all US-based, Small private equity firms with platform companies that have acquired in the Aerospace sector.

  3. Search actively acquiring PE-backed companies in the Transportation sector.

How Does it Work?

The search interface at the top of the PE Add-on Activity page is divided into three blocks.

As shown above, the left search block labeled Search PE Acquirers allows you to filter the results table by private equity criteria. You can filter by Name, Size, and Location. 

The middle search block labeled Search Platform Companies allows you to filter the results table by characteristics of platform companies. You can filter by Name, Sector, and Location.

The right search block labeled Search Platform Add-ons allows you to filter the results table by characteristics of add-ons to platform companies. You can filter by Name, Sector, and Location.

The search fields correspond to similarly labeled columns in the search results table. These are labeled PE Owner, Platform Company, and Total Add-ons.

In one consolidated view, you can view Owner > Platform > Add-on relationship and search and filter your results based on any or all these records.

Sample Search 1

In our first sample search above, identifying all the actively acquiring platform companies of The Blackstone Group, simply search for the The Blackstone Group in the PE Firm Names field.

As shown above, the result tables lists all Blackstone's portfolio companies (Platform Company column) with at least 1 add-on since the platform was acquired. The add-ons are listed in the add-ons column.

To help analyze the results table, as shown in the second example, in one view - we see that The Blackstone Group acquired Team Health Holdings at the end of 2016 for $6.1B via a Take Private transaction.

Since that acquisition, Team Heath has acquired 1 new company.

However, prior to Blackstone's acquisition, Team Health had 35 prior acquisitions. These are segmented out and listed under 'Prior Add-on(s)' given they occurred before Blackstone.

Sample Search 2

In the second search example above, 'Search all US-based, Small private equity firms with platform companies that have acquired in the Aerospace sector', here's how you would do it.

A. Select 'Small' in the PE Firm Size dropdown.
B. Select 'East US', 'Midwest US', 'South US', and 'West US' in the HQ Region dropdown.
C. Select 'Aerospace' in the Sector dropdown within the Search Platform Add-ons criteria block.

Sorting Your Results

By default, results are delivered by the 'Add-on Acquisition Date (Most Recent' first, however you can also sort your results by 'Total Add-ons' (high to low), and 'Total Add-ons (last 24 months)'. 

These last two sort options help identify the most acquisitive PE-backed companies and may be useful in your searches.

Don't hesitate to message us if you have any feedback or questions of course.

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