Private EquityInvestment Strategy

Over more than three decades of private equity investing, Berkshire Partners sought to build partnerships with the management teams of growing businesses. Our experienced team seeks to align with company leadership to transform what we view as high-potential businesses into enduring enterprises.

We bring capital and resources and look to act as thought partners to help build management and operating systems that enable scalable, profitable growth. We have helped businesses grow into new domestic and global markets; expand their customer bases; execute and integrate mergers and acquisitions; build high-performing boards of directors; optimize capital structure; recruit talent; and enhance pricing, distribution, and systems. We have applied our approach to primarily middle market companies in a variety of industry sectors.

We believe relationships matter and our partnership approach allows us to engage and collaborate with management teams to align on a shared long-term vision and goals. We operate with integrity, honesty, mutual respect, and in a spirit of true collaboration that we believe often makes us a partner of choice. We use an analytical, truth-seeking mindset in all our interactions. The ongoing collaboration with our colleagues at Stockbridge is additive to our investment approach, industry expertise, and appreciation for the dynamics of the public markets.

Company Attributes

We seek to partner with high-potential, resilient businesses we believe are well-positioned for long-term growth and to emerge as market leaders. We believe most of our investments have several of these characteristics:

  • Led by innovative management teams capable of building an enduring business
  • Operate in sectors and segments with attractive long-term demand tailwinds
  • Offer differentiated products or services that are gaining market share, with defensible positions and durable business models
  • A proven consolidation playbook with a large addressable universe of potential targets
  • Multiple ways to grow value, both organically and through acquisitions, and a leading or emerging market position that offers the benefits of scale
  • Strong organizational infrastructure, including management systems and reporting, and a proven ability to attract, retain, and incentivize talent
  • Use leading technologies to enable growth and build share, and/or disrupting and innovating in their markets

Investment Parameters

Since our inception, we have raised 10 private equity funds with more than $20 billion of capital commitments and are currently investing from our tenth private equity fund of $5.8 billion. We benefit from a flexible investment mandate and have partnered with other private equity investors. Our typical investment parameters are:

  • Enterprise values of $200 million to $2 billion
  • Equity investments of $150 million to $500+ million
  • Majority or minority ownership positions
  • Buyouts or management recapitalizations, partial recapitalizations, growth capital, and, in certain situations, public securities
  • Principal business location in North America, while opportunistically investing globally and working with our portfolio companies to expand internationally