PE Hub’s Deal of the Year Awards: Call for nominations

The awards honor exceptional buyouts that were fully or mostly realized in 2024.

PE Hub is now accepting nominations for the 35th annual Deal of the Year Awards, which honor exceptional buyouts that were fully or mostly realized in 2024.

The deadline for submission is Friday, January 10, 2025. Winners will be selected in six categories, plus an overall winner, and the results will be published on pehub.com in March.

Click here to submit your nomination.

Note: In the past, the awards selection process was led by the Buyouts team, with participation from the PE Hub team. To reflect PE Hub’s focus on deals and dealmakers, PE Hub is now leading the project. If you have any questions, please send an e-mail to PE Hub editor-in-chief Mary Kathleen (MK) Flynn at mk.flynn@pei.group.

Selection of the winners is at the sole discretion of the PE Hub editorial team and will include input from PEI Group’s awards judging panel, which includes Flynn and PE Hub Europe editor Craig McGlashan. Bios for all the PEI Group awards judges can be found here.

Some of the categories and criteria have changed this year.

PE Hub’s Deal of the Year Awards 2025 categories are:

Large-Cap North America – recognizing the sale of a company with an enterprise value at the time of the exit of $1 billion or more
Large-Cap Europe – recognizing the sale of a company with an enterprise value at the time of the exit of $1 billion or more
Mid-Cap North America – recognizing the sale of a company with an enterprise value at the time of the exit of $200 million to $1 billion
Mid-Cap Europe – recognizing the sale of a company with an enterprise value at the time of the exit of $200 million to $1 billion
Small-Cap North America – recognizing the sale of a company with an enterprise value at the time of the exit of $100 million to $200 million
Small-Cap Europe – recognizing the sale of a company with an enterprise value at the time of the exit of $100 million to $200 million
Deal of the Year – recognizing one of the category winners as the best LBO exit of 2024. This will be given to the single deal that stands out for its innovation and execution. There is no separate nomination for this category.

Qualifications

To be considered for the Deal of the Year awards, the original purchase must involve a majority stake purchase, full or partial private equity sponsorship, and result in the target company remaining private or going private. (Thus, transactions such as PIPEs and the merger of two public companies will not be considered.)
The LBO firm must have exited at least the majority of its equity position, and therefore must no longer be the lead investor. We will consider deals where the LBO firm retains a small equity position. Exits can take the form of a sale to another private equity firm, a strategic buyer or an IPO.
The exit must have closed in 2024 (but could have been agreed to or announced in 2023).
The company must be based in either North America or Europe. The PE firm may be based anywhere.
We will recognize the lead sponsor of a deal and potentially co-sponsors, if they played a significant role.

What wins?

Listed below are the most significant criteria by which the deal-related entries will be judged by the editors of PE Hub.

Origination (Was the deal proprietary?)
Innovation (How was your approach unique?)
Timeliness (How quickly and efficiently was the deal agreed to and financed? What obstacles were overcome?)
Financing structure and subsequent refinancings
Success of any add-on transactions
Operational and personnel improvements
Exit (How well were options vetted? How good was the timing?)

Submission details

All information shared with PE Hub will be kept strictly confidential. In the event a submission is chosen as a winner, a PE Hub reporter will be in touch to agree on what information can be used in the award story.

Deals can be submitted for as many categories as you like. Also, there is no penalty for one firm nominating multiple deals for one category.

There are no costs associated with submitting nominations for PE Hub’s Deal of the Year Awards.

Submissions for each available award must include the following:

Executive summary of the deal, highlighting those aspects that make it most deserving of recognition, not to exceed 200 words.
Bullet point highlights, or an essay not to exceed 1,000 words, describing why the transaction deserves an award, including details listed below:
Please submit the target name, purchase price and details of the capital structure post-closing. We’d also like details on the condition of the company when you purchased it. Please supply such details as trailing 12-month revenue, EBITDA, number of employees, factories and other relevant financial metrics. Also provide the names of all parties involved (other sponsors, law firms, accounting firms, investment banks, etc).
As for the exit, we’d like to know the sale price, the date of purchase agreement and closing, and the names of all parties involved (other sponsors, law firms, accounting firms, investment banks, etc). Please supply trailing 12-month revenue, EBITDA, number of employees, factories and other relevant financial metrics and benchmarks.
Please supply an explanation of how much value was created during your ownership through organic growth and add-on acquisitions. For any add-on acquisitions, please provide timing, purchase price and relevant financial metrics.
The strongest entries will provide supporting details, anecdotes and independent, third-party evaluations. We welcome contact information for third parties who could discuss the transaction.
Show the net and gross IRR for the transaction as well as net and gross multiple of investment.

Finally, see previous winners for insights on what it takes to win.

Nearly there!