CFO reports that a new study from Ernst & Young shows that in recent years private-equity-owned firms have outperformed their publicly held peers with the returns they generated for investors.

CFO said from 2006 to 2012, E&Y found in its study of North American PE deals, PE-backed firms spawned a return of more than five-fold that of investor returns on publicly held companies.

CFO notes that about half of that return (realized when the PE firm sold its ownership interest) came from strategic and operational improvements.

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