Your expert for questions
Klaus Bernhard
PE Assurance Leader and ESG in Deals Partner at PwC Deutschland
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Challenges in the PE environment
Private equity houses and portfolio companies are faced with major challenges: Complex and increasing accounting and reporting requirements against the backdrop of scarce human resources and the endeavour to leverage efficiencies through greater use of technology.
In concrete terms, these challenges manifest themselves in the environment of private equity and portfolio companies as follows:
- Timely provision of reliable, efficient and appropriate internal and external reporting
- Often only limited experience with accounting/consolidation in accordance with for example IFRS or US GAAP
- New topics in the area of accounting and non-financial reporting
- Increasing shortages in staff
- Accounting and controlling processes/systems that are not geared towards monthly/quarterly closing and reporting
- Excel-based planning without an integrated planning model or automated actual/plan comparisons
- Operational implementation of identified synergies/efficiency potentials
PE Expertise
As a flexible and multidisciplinary team with a focus on the private equity industry and an international network of local PE experts, we can help you overcome these challenges and create additional value.
We understand the objectives and challenges that arise during the value creation process. As accounting experts, we have extensive experience in delivering relevant and reliable information in the right quality, granularity, and at the right time. This expertise enables us to successfully support you as a private equity house or portfolio company in implementing your strategy. We see ourselves as a trustworthy and competent advisor at eye level and always keep an eye on compliance with regulatory or other relevant requirements.
Our approach
We support you throughout the entire investment life-cycle with our expertise in accounting and reporting and you benefit from our:
- many years of experience with transactions in the private equity environment
- extensive experience with private equity-backed portfolio companies
- standardised approach, which can be tailored to your individual needs
- hands-on mentality and responsiveness
- national and international private equity network
- industry expertise through high profile publications and top events
Value creation through reliable reporting along the PE lifecycle
- Buy phase
- Hold phase
- Sell phase
Buy phase
During the buy phase, we support you in planning the transaction, structuring and valuation with our accounting and reporting services, such as due diligence to reduce information asymmetries or a closing support.
In addition, we take into account the requirements of non-financial reporting (e.g. sustainability) across all phases and thus support you in maximising your value in the non-financial area.
Hold phase
In the hold phase, our focus is on helping you stabilise and maximise the value of the investment by providing accounting and reporting services. As a portfolio company, we are happy to support you with monthly and/or annual internal (e.g. management, budget/forecast) and external reporting (e.g. according to legal requirements, for financing purposes). If required, we can also take over the financial functions completely as part of accounting managed services so that you can concentrate fully on your core business.
In addition, we take into account the requirements of non-financial reporting (e.g. sustainability) across all phases and thus support you in maximising your value in the non-financial area.
Sell phase
In the sell phase, we support you through the entire process, regardless of the exit form chosen, so that you fully fulfill the applicable accounting and reporting requirements. When preparing for the exit, we can help you, for example, with a transaction readiness analysis on the data side or with an IPO readiness assessment on the process side in order to identify and close open items at an early stage.
In addition, we take into account the requirements of non-financial reporting (e.g. sustainability) across all phases and thus support you in maximising your value in the non-financial area.
More efficiency through the use of technology
True to our motto “Human-led & tech-powered”, we use proven and state-of-the-art technology in the delivery of our services, which is easy to implement so as to provide you with the best possible quality in the most efficient and pragmatic way. Of course, we can also customize existing standard software solutions to meet your specific reporting requirements.
You benefit from our long-standing and close partnerships with renowned software providers such as LucaNet and Workiva. In addition, we have developed our own supplementary accounting and reporting tools based on our many years of experience in the accounting and reporting environment, particularly in the private equity sector.
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