Mid-Market Sponsors · Operating Partners · Buy-and-Build Platforms
When the multiple stops carrying the return, the operating plan has to.
Entry prices are high and holds are long, so the EBITDA growth a deal now needs has to come from pricing, cost-to-serve, working capital and add-on integration rather than from the multiple. Ometz Partners works with sponsors and their portfolio companies in health and wellness and in financial services, with buy-and-build as the specialty. The Portfolio Diagnostic applies one method across the companies you own; the Performance Diagnostic baselines a single company. From there we build the 100-day plan with management, redesign the work, deploy technology where it earns its place, and track every lever against the company's own baseline, so the result holds up when a buyer tests it.
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Portfolio Diagnostic
One method across a sponsor's portfolio companies: a baseline for each, the levers ranked across the portfolio, and a priced plan per company.
The landscape
The multiple has stopped doing the work.
Bain's Global Private Equity Report 2026 sets out the arithmetic: a typical buyout once needed about 5% annual EBITDA growth to reach its target return, and today's entry prices need something closer to 10–12%. Roughly 32,000 companies, holding $3.8 trillion in unrealized value, are waiting for an exit, and buyers will test the improvement claimed for each of them in the numbers. Sponsors have drawn the obvious conclusion: in S&P Global Market Intelligence's 2026 survey, operational improvement ranked as general partners' top value-creation lever, at 72%.
That moves the work from the deal model into businesses that rarely have the bench to deliver it. Mid-market platforms carry a familiar set of value pools: price realization and revenue leakage, cost-to-serve, labor productivity, working capital, and add-on integration. The last one weighs heavily: add-ons made up 72.9% of US PE buyouts in 2025, according to PitchBook. AI and automation now reach into each of those pools, but proof is scarce: in Grant Thornton's 2026 survey, only 9% of PE respondents were confident they could pass an AI governance audit within 90 days. Closing the distance between a promising pilot and a governed, measured run-rate improvement is now part of the value-creation plan.
We keep the focus narrow on purpose. We work through sponsors, go deep in health and wellness, and specialize in buy-and-build, where a platform and its add-ons have to become one operating company. In health and wellness, that means mid-market businesses from specialty chemicals, ingredients and contract manufacturing through food and consumer health to dental, medical, home health and aesthetics platforms; in financial services, wealth managers, broker-dealers, RIA aggregators and CPA and advisory platforms. Knowing the workflows, such as chair utilization and collections in a dental group, advisor onboarding and custodian transitions in an RIA aggregator, or the review queue in a CPA platform's busy season, is what lets a diagnostic produce priced plays in weeks instead of a generic maturity score.
The market problem, in published numbers
10–12%
annual EBITDA growth today's buyout entry prices need to reach a 2.5x return over five years, against about 5% for a typical 2015 deal, when cheaper debt and rising multiples did much of the work
Bain & Company, Global Private Equity Report 2026, “Welcome to a New Era” (2026)
32,000
companies held unsold in private equity portfolios, representing roughly $3.8 trillion in unrealized value
Bain & Company, Global Private Equity Report 2026, “The Industry Gains Traction” (2026)
72%
for operational improvements, ranked by general partners as the top value-creation lever
S&P Global Market Intelligence, 2026 Private Equity Survey (fielded February 2026) (2026)
72.9%
of US private equity buyouts in 2025 were add-on acquisitions, in line with the five-year average
PitchBook, 2025 Annual US PE Breakdown (data as of December 31, 2025) (2026)
9%
of private equity respondents are confident they could pass an AI governance audit within 90 days (PE subgroup of 100; directional)
Grant Thornton, Private equity insights: 2026 AI Impact Survey Report (2026)
Figures are third-party market benchmarks from the cited sources, not Ometz Partners client results. We share them so you can size the problem before we ever talk.
Where performance is lost
EBITDA has to be earned
With multiple expansion no longer carrying returns, the plan depends on margin and growth that management has to deliver, quarter by quarter.
Operating bandwidth
An operating team covering a whole portfolio cannot also run the pricing work, the integration office and the KPI build inside each company.
Add-ons that stay separate
Acquired businesses keep their own systems, pricing and workflows, so the synergy case lives in the model instead of the run-rate.
Value a buyer can't verify
Initiatives reported as activity, and AI pilots with no governance record, give a buyer's diligence team little to underwrite.
The Private Equity program
Programs built around how your business runs.
MARGIN
The 100-Day Value-Creation Plan
The diagnostic's priced plays turned into owned workstreams, with margin and cash levers in the run-rate by day 100 rather than still in the model.
What we measure
- EBITDA run-rate versus plan, by lever
- Cash conversion and days sales outstanding
- Cost-to-serve per unit (visit, account, engagement or order)
01
Pre-deal performance scan
Run under your NDA and, where one applies, your clean-team protocol: an operator's read of where margin, growth and integration value sit in the target, as one input to your own investment judgment.
02
Margin and cash levers
Price realization, discount discipline, cost-to-serve, procurement and working capital, each with an owner, a baseline and a weekly target.
03
Work redesigned, AI where it pays
Collections, scheduling, intake, reporting and the monthly close redesigned end to end, with automation and AI built in where they cut cost or cycle time measurably.
VALUE CAPTURE
Add-On Integration & Synergy Capture
Each acquisition brought onto the platform's pricing, systems and operating model on a set schedule, with the synergy case tracked until it shows in the run-rate.
What we measure
- Time to platform standard per add-on
- Synergies realized versus deal case
- Customer and staff retention at acquired businesses
01
Day-one and first-90-days playbook
A repeatable plan for every add-on covering finance, pricing, systems, people and customer communication, run through an integration office set up with management.
02
One platform standard
A common chart of accounts, pricing architecture, core workflows and KPI definitions, with data migration and automation led by Ometz Partners and owned by management.
03
Synergy tracking
Cost and revenue synergies tracked line by line against the deal case, with variances reported to the board as they appear rather than at exit.
CLARITY
Value-Creation Scorecard & Exit Evidence
One measured view of every lever in the plan, built so the result holds up in a buyer's quality-of-earnings and operational diligence.
What we measure
- Share of plan value measured against a baseline
- Days to close the monthly board pack
- Evidence items ready for the data room
01
Baseline and KPI tree
Each lever mapped to the operating metrics that drive it and baselined from the company's own systems before work starts.
02
Board and sponsor scorecard
A monthly view by lever (owner, baseline, delta, run-rate) with the data lineage behind every figure.
03
Exit-ready evidence pack
Baselines, measured deltas, running systems and AI governance records (use inventory, human sign-off points, audit trails), organized for the data room.
The diagnosis
What we look for in your portfolio.
The Portfolio Diagnostic measures these across the companies you own, and the Performance Diagnostic measures them in one company, so every later result is judged against the same baseline.
Which value-creation levers are in the run-rate, and which are still only in the model
Price realization against list, discount leakage, and contracted work that never gets billed
Cost-to-serve by customer, site or channel, and the manual work inside it
Cash conversion: days sales outstanding, collections cycle, and inventory where it matters
Add-ons still running on their own systems, pricing, chart of accounts or workflows
Whether the board pack shows leading operating indicators or only month-end results
AI and automation in use: owned, governed and measured, or scattered pilots
How an engagement runs
01
Weeks 1 to 4: Portfolio or Performance Diagnostic
Fixed fee. Across a portfolio, the Portfolio Diagnostic applies one method to each company on one timetable and ranks the levers across them. For a single company, the Performance Diagnostic runs pre-close as a performance scan under your NDA and, where one applies, your clean-team protocol, or post-close with management. Either way we baseline on the company's own data, price improvement plays against EBITDA and cash, and hand over a 90-day plan that slots into the value-creation plan.
02
First 100 days: Plan into practice
The plays become owned workstreams with milestones and a weekly scorecard. We redesign the work alongside management and lead any technology, automation or data build the plan needs, with tools matched on fit, cost and risk.
03
Through the hold: Integrate the add-ons
Each acquisition is brought onto the platform's pricing, systems and operating model on a set schedule, with synergies tracked against the deal case.
04
Into exit: Evidence the result
Baselines, measured deltas by lever, running systems and governance records are assembled as the program runs, so the data room tells the same story the board pack has been telling.
Our thinking for Private Equity
All insightsPrivate Equity FAQ
Alongside it. The operating partner sets priorities and owns the relationship with management; we run the diagnostic, build the 100-day plan with the CEO and CFO, and carry the delivery work the company has no bench for: pricing analysis, process redesign, the integration office, and the technology deployment. Our managing director has served as a sponsor's operating partner and as CEO of a PE-backed company, so we work to the cadence your board expects.
The Performance Diagnostic baselines one company and returns three priced plays with a 90-day plan. The Portfolio Diagnostic runs the same method across several portfolio companies on one timetable, so the sponsor sees the levers ranked across the portfolio and each management team receives its own plan. Both are fixed fee, and the findings belong to you.
Yes, as a performance scan: an operator's view of where margin, growth and integration value sit in the target, scoped to your timetable and run under your NDA and, where one applies, your clean-team protocol. It complements financial, legal and commercial diligence. It is not a quality-of-earnings review or a valuation, and we do not make investment recommendations.
Mid-market companies in health and wellness (dental, medical and specialty provider platforms, home health and aesthetics, food and beverage, specialty chemicals and ingredients, pharma services, CDMOs and consumer health) and in financial services (wealth managers, broker-dealers, RIA aggregators, and CPA and advisory platforms). Buy-and-build platforms integrating add-ons are the most common fit. If a company sits outside those, we will say so in the first conversation.
Every system we build has a named business owner, human sign-off wherever judgment or regulation requires it, audit trails, and an entry in a use inventory the board can read. Data stays in systems the company designates. We sign NDAs, and a BAA where a portfolio company's work involves protected health information.
As evidence rather than narrative: baselines from the company's own systems, measured deltas by lever, systems a buyer can watch running, and governance records for any AI in production. That is what a buyer's diligence team tests, and an improvement that cannot be traced to a baseline is easy to discount.
Next step
Start with the Portfolio Diagnostic.
One method across a sponsor's portfolio companies: a baseline for each, the levers ranked across the portfolio, and a priced plan per company. For a single company, the Performance Diagnostic applies the same method.