Voting Closed
To find out who won, book a table at the British Private Equity Party Awards 2025 on Tuesday, 30 September at The Brewrey, London
Perwyn
This category signals a shift that Perwyn, as an early mover, has been leading for over 12 years - since our inception. Our deal-by-deal model is not just an alternative, it is a more transparent and precise way for LPs to deploy capital. We have built a business around this conviction.
We have a track record of making 34 platform investments with over 60 add-on
acquisitions since our founding, generating a 4.2x MoIC on realised investments to date. This has been down to our highly experienced team with over 25 investment professionals operating out of our three offices in London, Paris and Milan.
By raising capital around specific transactions, we empower our LPs to allocate with clarity and precision, moving away from the black-box nature of blind-pool funds. Our commitment to this model has helped us attract a wide range of new investors, both geographically (from Europe and North America), and by type (e.g. insurers, asset managers, endowments and family offices). While our original backer remains a key partner, external LPs contribute up to 40% per deal, validating our approach and given increasing demand puts us on track for a 50% fund institution funding model.
With over €2bn in AUM, our permanent capital base gives us the freedom to pursue the right opportunities, unconstrained by traditional fund mandates. Our fundless model results in cleaner, more aligned returns. As deal-by-deal investing evolves, Perwyn stands as a proven and credible force.
Sullivan Street
Sullivan Street Partners (SSP), founded 15 years ago, has had an exceptional year that has firmly put the firm on the map as the go-to firm for complex and esoteric mid-market buyouts. SSP’s people-centric and operational ethos has also led to strong exits, the most recent being the sale of Tivoli (created from the merger of two carveouts) to the Nurture Group, generating 7.2x MOIC.
Over the last year, SSP completed four new standalone transactions, a refinancing, and a bolt-on, representing the most active period in the firm’s history. These transactions include UKAT – the UK’s premier addiction treatment service, Zelus – an international licensee of Nike, the Ancora Group – a marine engineering specialist, and signing the purchase of Senior plc’s Aerostructures business. The firm has always operated on a deal-by-deal basis and investors have evolved from UHNW to family offices to large scale institutions. As a result of the quick succession of deals in the pipeline, SSP deployed c.£125m in equity.
Additionally, SSP refinanced the debt facility in Octavius Infrastructure, enabling an 80% return of capital to investors, and completed the add-on of The Providence Projects for UKAT, just nine months post-acquisition.
SSP prides itself on its empathetic culture, which it shares with the management teams and advisors it works alongside. The successes of the last 12 months have been supported by the team’s expansion, including Oliver Marshall’s promotion to Partner and the recruitment of Steve Biddlecombe (former CFO of exited business Tivoli) as Finance Operating Director.
Voting Closed
To find out who won, book a table at the British Private Equity Party Awards 2025 on Tuesday, 30 September at The Brewrey, London