Media Contacts
For further information, to learn more about the PERG or the Guidelines contact [email protected].
Notes to editors
1. About the UK Private Equity Annual Public Reports
The UK Private Equity Annual Public Reports bring together three separate annual reports which seek to provide enhanced transparency and disclosures by some of the largest UK portfolio companies and their private equity owners.
The reports fall within the scope of the Walker Guidelines, first established in 2007, which provides the framework for the private equity industry to disclose information relating to UK-based portfolio companies and encourage a greater level of disclosure across the industry. The reports aim to present independently prepared information clearly and simply, to inform the broader business and public debate on the impact of private equity ownership on large businesses.
- The Annual report of the Private Equity Reporting Group can be found here. It sets out the findings of a review of a sample of 25 portfolio companies (one third of the population) to report on the level of compliance with the Guidelines on Transparency and Disclosure in Private Equity revised July 2014 (‘the Guidelines’). The population was confirmed as at 30 April 2023.
- The EY annual report on the performance of portfolio companies can be found here. The report covers 81 portfolio companies, as defined according to the criteria of the Walker Guidelines, as at the 2022 financial report year, as well as a further 116 portfolio companies that have been owned and exited since 2005.
- The PwC Good Practice Guide on improving transparency and disclosure can be found here. This guide is prepared to assist portfolio companies when prepare their additional disclosures as well as to demonstrate the best practice in a particular the year.
Making the industry’s annual reports more accessible
As well as publishing each of the reports separately, the key findings have been brought together in an annual overview, as the Private Equity Annual Public Reports. All reports and key metrics are available via a microsite, making the information readily available.
The annual reporting process include sector breakdowns on data points including changes in growth, productivity and financial leverage that portfolio companies experience under private equity ownership.
2. The Walker Guidelines
In February 2007, the BVCA asked Sir David Walker to undertake an independent review of the adequacy of disclosure and transparency in private equity, with a view to recommending a set of guidelines for conformity by the industry on a voluntary basis. This review resulted in the publication of the Guidelines in November 2007.
The Guidelines have four main components – three that apply to portfolio companies and a fourth that applies to the private equity firms managing or advising funds that own the portfolio companies:
- Portfolio companies should prepare disclosures as stipulated in the Guidelines in their audited annual report and financial statements and prepare a mid-year update.
- Portfolio companies are required to publish their annual report and a mid-year update in a timely and accessible manner on their company website.
- Private equity firms should publish certain disclosures on their own website.
- Portfolio companies are required to share certain data, which is presented in an aggregated performance report by EY to illustrate the contribution of private equity to the UK economy.
- The Guidelines operate on a ‘comply or explain’ basis.