Private Equity
How does a portfolio company become measurably more valuable during the hold period?
We work for private equity firms, financial investors, family offices and strategic buyers on the operational levers of a life sciences portfolio company: manufacturing excellence, quality system remediation, supply chain and procurement, digitalisation and data transparency. Value creation rarely comes from a new strategy but from what the due diligence recorded as a finding and what was then left untouched.
Overview
The value sits in the findings list once it is worked down
Last updated: August 3, 2026
After closing there is almost always a list: the due diligence findings, sorted by their effect on the terms. What happens to that list decides more about value development than any strategy exercise, because those findings are already identified, prioritised and understood in their effect.
- Deviations and open CAPA items are the most expensive backlog, because they tie up capacity and prejudice the next audit. Working them down is also the most measurable lever.
- Equipment utilisation is rarely a technical problem. Whoever can measure OEE honestly finds the losses in changeover, planning and fault recovery, not in the machine.
- Procurement and demand planning are treated separately although the cost of goods sold depends on their coupling. Without integrated S&OP, inventory coverage stays an estimate.
- Digitalisation is run as an IT project and then delivers systems without reliable data. Data transparency is what makes the remaining levers controllable at all.
How we support you
Value creation
Related projects
Measured in client mandates
Where projects commonly fail
The due diligence findings list is not carried forward after closing. Effort and effect already sit together there; whoever leaves it aside prioritises by instinct afterwards and loses comparability with the investment case.
Too many workstreams are opened at once. A portfolio company in operational backlog has the management capacity for two or three parallel strands, not for eight; the rest produce status reports instead of effect.
Metrics are collected before the data basis can carry them. An OEE from manually maintained spreadsheets moves with recording discipline rather than with the equipment, and every decision resting on it is contestable.
Regulations & standards considered
- EU GMP Guide Parts I and II (Good Manufacturing Practice)
- EU GMP Guide Annex 11 (Computerised Systems)
- ISO 13485:2016 (QM system for medical devices)
- Regulation (EU) 2017/745 (MDR), Chapter VII (Post-market surveillance)
- 21 CFR Part 11 (Electronic Records; Electronic Signatures)
Frequently asked questions
Sources
- EU GMP Guide Parts I and II: Good Manufacturing Practice for medicinal products
- EU GMP Guide Annex 11: Computerised Systems
- ISO 13485:2016: Quality management systems for medical devices
- 21 CFR Part 11: Electronic Records and Electronic Signatures
- Own case study: fill-finish-turnaround-pharma (52% fewer overdue deviations, 51% more production)
- Own case study: lean-six-sigma-sterile-abfuellung (+20% OEE within twelve months)
- docs/PRIVATE-EQUITY-HUB-KONZEPT.md, sections 4a and 8a (metrics with source, writing rules)
Related topics