Private equity buyouts and firm exports: evidence from UK firms

We assess the impact of private equity buyouts on the export behaviour of target firms exploiting data on UK firms over the 2004-2017 period. We provide evidence that following private equity (PE) buyouts, non-exporting firms are more likely to begin exporting relative to their non-PE backed counterparts and they are more likely to increase their value of exports and their export intensity. Further, when we perform a split-sample analysis, our results signal the importance of the credit constraints and the productivity channels. This suggests that PE investors add value to their portfolio firms by easing their financial constraints and improving their productivity