Key Takeaways
- • Deloitte's annual Private Equity Index 2025 assesses UK private equity-backed consumer businesses across three pillars: profit, people and planet, using outside-in public data.
- • The majority of PE-backed companies in the index posted strong revenue and EBITDA growth, while a significant number experienced margin contraction driven by inflationary pressures.
- • The index is built on lagging indicators from financial years ending 2023, with a three-year look-back to 2020, and does not fully capture 2024 or early 2025 conditions.
- • Deloitte positions the report as a call to action for PE firms to treat sustainability and financial performance as complementary drivers of long-term value.
- • Individual portfolio company scores are not published; they are shared only with portfolio company management and sponsors via a dashboard.
Summary
Deloitte's annual Private Equity (PE) Index examines how private equity-backed consumer businesses are balancing performance across three pillars: profit, people and planet. The index is framed as a yearly assessment of how businesses must evolve to maintain profitable models and a license to operate within emerging sustainable economies, a point of particular relevance given the investment cycles of PE firms.
According to Deloitte, the analysis reveals a PE landscape defined by both robust financial performance and emerging challenges. While the majority of companies demonstrated strong revenue and EBITDA growth, a significant number experienced margin contraction due to inflationary pressures. The firm argues that navigating sector-specific dynamics and implementing careful cost management will be crucial for PE firms to maintain profitability and deliver strong returns in an increasingly complex market. While companies continue to struggle to balance their impact across profit, people and planet, Deloitte notes positive signs of improvement over the last two years.
The PE Index is an outside-in assessment drawn from publicly available data on large, UK-based PE-backed companies. Deloitte says this mirrors the information a potential investor gathers during an early-stage sales process or the due diligence a leader might perform before joining a team. Each portfolio company is scored against sector and subsector peers and across the full population; these individual scores are not published in the report but are made available to portfolio company management and their sponsors through a dashboard. Methodology details are contained in the full report.
Deloitte cautions that the index relies on lagging indicators built from data for financial years ending 2023, with a three-year look-back to 2020. As a result, it does not necessarily reflect political and economic pressures experienced in 2024 and the first quarter of 2025, or the effects of new policies and regulations.
Looking ahead, Deloitte expects the index to become a more reliable benchmark for value creation in private markets as data quality improves under regulations such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, and as potential further diversity and workforce reporting requirements emerge. Deloitte also plans to adapt future iterations toward measures focused more on action and improvement, reflecting a wider definition of value in strategies and operating models.
According to Deloitte, the analysis reveals a PE landscape defined by both robust financial performance and emerging challenges. While the majority of companies demonstrated strong revenue and EBITDA growth, a significant number experienced margin contraction due to inflationary pressures. The firm argues that navigating sector-specific dynamics and implementing careful cost management will be crucial for PE firms to maintain profitability and deliver strong returns in an increasingly complex market. While companies continue to struggle to balance their impact across profit, people and planet, Deloitte notes positive signs of improvement over the last two years.
The PE Index is an outside-in assessment drawn from publicly available data on large, UK-based PE-backed companies. Deloitte says this mirrors the information a potential investor gathers during an early-stage sales process or the due diligence a leader might perform before joining a team. Each portfolio company is scored against sector and subsector peers and across the full population; these individual scores are not published in the report but are made available to portfolio company management and their sponsors through a dashboard. Methodology details are contained in the full report.
Deloitte cautions that the index relies on lagging indicators built from data for financial years ending 2023, with a three-year look-back to 2020. As a result, it does not necessarily reflect political and economic pressures experienced in 2024 and the first quarter of 2025, or the effects of new policies and regulations.
Looking ahead, Deloitte expects the index to become a more reliable benchmark for value creation in private markets as data quality improves under regulations such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, and as potential further diversity and workforce reporting requirements emerge. Deloitte also plans to adapt future iterations toward measures focused more on action and improvement, reflecting a wider definition of value in strategies and operating models.
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