Why is typical LBO lifetime ~5 years?

  1. Is there a fundamental / technical reason behind this? Does it return in the optimal return? What are the alternatives? What are the determining factors?

  2. Is it more of a "choice" thing for GPs (after they consider the tradeoffs between paying down debt, potential exit price, paying out LPs earlier)? Or is it more "constraint" -based (must hold that much to pay debt, LPs prefer this investment period, etc.)?

5 Comments
 

If that explains the upper limit (don’t hold too long), then what explains the lower limit? Why not exit in 2-3 years?

 

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