Good morning, Hubsters. MK Flynn here in New York with the US edition of the Wire.
I’m delighted to announce the winners of PE Hub’s 35th annual Deal of the Year Awards!
On behalf of the entire team at PE Hub, congratulations to Leonard Green & Partners, Permira, Atlas Holdings, One Equity Partners, Montage Partners and Ardian!
All the details on the deals that won can be found here.
We’ll be featuring the winners in the Wire throughout the week, beginning now with the recipient of the overall Deal of the Year Award.
Kudos!
For delivering the fourth-largest US private equity exit in history amid a challenging environment for M&A and for sharing the proceeds with the target’s employees, Leonard Green & Partners wins PE Hub’s overall Deal of the Year Award for 2024, as well as our Large-Cap North America Award.
The Los Angeles-based PE firm sold SRS Distribution, a distributor of roofing materials and building products based in McKinney, Texas, to the Home Depot for an enterprise value of $18.25 billion in an all-cash transaction. The deal was signed in March 2024 and closed swiftly in June.
The expected exit route for SRS had been an initial public offering, but the all-cash offer from the Home Depot proved too good to pass up.
“SRS is a world-class company that would be attractive to any number of buyers or the public markets in any environment,” LGP managing partner John Danhakl told PE Hub. “We believe that SRS will continue to be a winner under the Home Depot.”
Danhakl said he was “so confident in the combination that I personally bought stock in the Home Depot the day the deal closed.”
Upgrade to the premium version of the Wire to learn more about SRS’ 75 acquisitions under LGP’s ownership – and about how employees of SRS shared in proceeds from the sale.
PE Hub received hundreds of nominations for the 2024 awards. Our criteria for selecting the winners included a wide array of metrics, such as multiples on invested capital; internal rates of return; EBITDA growth; employee retention, expansion and participation in exit proceeds; add-on deals and organic growth. We also looked at investment rationale and plans, as well as methods of growth and how exits were made. And we considered the significance of transactions within a sector and how they exemplified the year’s challenges and opportunities. For more on the nomination and selection process, click here.
Check the Wire throughout the week for more coverage of all the winners.
To see awards winners from other PEI Group titles, check out the Also of note section below.
Coming up
Next week, I’ll be in Orlando at PEI Group’s NEXUS 2025 summit. And I hope to see you there!
I’m looking forward to taking the stage with many PE thought leaders, including Advent’s Tricia Glynn, Apollo’s David Sambur, Bridgepoint’s Xavier Robert, Carlyle’s Brian Bernasek, the Riverside Company’s Stewart Kohl and Silver Lake’s Joe Osnoss.
For preview interviews with many of the NEXUS featured speakers, click here.
Check back on Wednesday, when we’ll publish my Q&A with Tricia Glynn about investing in the consumer sector – including an emerging category she’s excited about.
And check back tomorrow, when Craig McGlashan will bring you the Europe edition of the Wire and Michael Schoeck will deliver the US edition.
Congrats again to all the winners!!
MK
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