International Search Funds - 2024: Selected Observations
Ann-Sophie Kowalewski, Peter Kelly, Jan Simon, Rob Johnson. (2024)
IESE ST-658-E, 30 pp
Dated September 2024; data as of December 31, 2023. The IESE hub sends readers to a registration form (https://apply.iese.edu/study2024/, which showed "Registration not available" this session); the PDF was reached directly at the media.iese.edu URL above, with the note number taken from the page footer of a third-party copy. Sample: "320 search funds formed outside the United States and Canada ... in 40 countries and on five continents" (p4); first-time core search funds only, same exclusions as 2022 (p6). Status: 121 searching; "Of the remaining 199, 146 had acquired a company, 38 had ended their search without an acquisition, and 15 had deviated"; "as much as 79% of international search funds led to an acquisition so far" against 63% in the US and Canada (p8). Returns: "Of the 184 concluded funds ... 130 were included" (37 unsuccessful searches, 93 acquisitions held at least one year) (p16); "an overall ROI of 2.0x and an IRR of 18.1%. The median search fund returned 1.4x of investors' capital post-acquisition, whereas the top-performing search fund returned 31.4x" (p16); median acquisition "purchase price of $11.7 million ... purchase price to EBITDA multiple of 5.7x" (p14). Limits: "some identified searchers or CEOs did not answer all questions" (p6); valuations of operating companies rest on "the principals' reported market value" (p16).