Private equity businesses outperform public: study

July 9 - Reuters - Private-equity owned businesses outperform publicly owned companies in terms of earnings and valuation, a study by accounting firm Ernst & Young said on Tuesday.

The study looked at buyout firms' "exits" from the businesses they owned in 2007. Private equity firms typically hold companies for five to seven years before exiting via either a sale or an initial public offering.

Ernst & Young said the annual growth rate in enterprise value for the 100 largest global companies from which private equity exited last year was 24 percent, double the rate of public counterparts. Read More.