Private equity disinvestments in the Netherlands 2019, by exit strategy

Both sales to other firms and sales to third parties were the most common types of private equity disinvestments in the Netherlands in 2019. Buybacks were much less common, reaching a market size of around one percent compared to the total disinvestments of the two aforementioned categories. Private equity is a form of investment into private companies that are not listed on the stock exchange. It is seen a medium to long-term investment, and is usually characterized by active ownership. Typically, the investors are high net worth individuals and large institutional investors. On the other hand, there are also companies that specialize in buying companies and then sell them on again. This is, to a certain degree, is reflected in the disinvestments figure. One of the most well-known examples of such a company in the Netherlands, which was acquired by an investment group with the purpose of being sold on for profit, is retailer HEMA.