Assertion Supported AI assessment confidence: 95% certainty 4/5 debate potential 1/5

MacArthur: Buyout multiples rising from 5x to 12x eliminated PE's error margin

Hugh MacArthur · Hugh MacArthur – Private Equity's Challenges and Opportunities (EP.453) · Jun 23, 2025 · at 21:01

Hugh MacArthur, Chairman of Bain & Company's Global Private Equity Practice, discusses how elevated entry multiples require sponsors to underwrite detailed operational value creation during due diligence.

0:00 / 0:16exact quote · 16.1s

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“30 years ago, you didn't really need to do that. When you're paying Five or six times EBTA for an asset. You could put some leverage on it, and as long as the asset did pretty well, you could cash out and make a lot of money. Now that the average multiple is 12, not five or six, that margin for error is gone.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

The claim, plainly

Average private equity buyout entry multiples were 5 to 6 times EBITDA thirty years ago and are approximately 12 times EBITDA today.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

Both legs of Hugh MacArthur's claim are corroborated by aggregated private equity industry transaction benchmarks. First, historical buyout data from S&P Capital IQ/LCD and academic datasets confirm that thirty years prior to 2025 (the mid-1990s, 1994–1996), average EV/EBITDA purchase price multiples for leveraged buyouts were between 5.0x and 6.3x. Second, benchmark reports from McKinsey & Company, PitchBook, S&P LCD, and Bain & Company covering 2023 to 2025 demonstrate that prevailing average/median global and North American buyout entry multiples hovered between 11.2x and 12.8x EBITDA (with median global multiples recorded at 11.9x to 12.0x), precisely matching the 'approximately 12 times' figure.

S&P Capital IQ/LCD and academic historical datasets show mid-1990s (1994–1996) LBO entry multiples averaged between 5.0x and 6.3x EBITDA.
McKinsey & Company Global Private Markets Reports recorded median global buyout entry multiples of 12.0x EBITDA in 2022, 11.9x in 2024, and 11.8x in 2025.
PitchBook and Bain & Company reports recorded 2024–2025 buyout entry multiples averaging between 11.8x and 12.8x EBITDA across North American and European sponsor transactions.

Checked against

[1] lacers.org [2] tum.de [3] berkeley.edu [4] mckinsey.com [5] mckinsey.com [6] pitchbook.com [7] theleadleft.com [8] offitkurman.com

"average purchase price multiple" "1995" OR "1996" "EBITDA" LBO Bain Global Private Equity Report historical buyout multiples EV EBITDA 1990s 2023 2024 "average buyout" multiple "1995" OR "1994" OR "1996" "EBITDA" S&P LCD OR Bain "S&P LCD" "1994" OR "1995" OR "1996" "purchase price" multiple EBITDA average buyout purchase price multiples EBITDA 1990s 1995 2023 2024 S P LCD PitchBook US PE buyout EV EBITDA multiple median 1995 2023 2024 PitchBook "median EV/EBITDA multiple" buyout 2023 OR 2024 OR 2025 "12." OR "11." "Global Private Equity Report" "purchase price multiples" Bain 1995 OR 1996 OR 2023 OR 2024 "buyout multiples" "1990s" "5x" OR "6x" "EBITDA" Bain OR PitchBook private equity buyout entry multiple 1990s 5x 6x 12x Bain

assessed as of 2026-09-02

This assessment is an AI reading of a public statement, made against the cited references with the confidence shown. It can be wrong. The quote, the tape and the references are all on this page; if something is off, use report an error below. full disclaimer →

Mentioned

EBITDA Hugh MacArthur private equity

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Assertion Contradicted

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MacArthur: Buyout multiples rising from 5x to 12x eliminated PE's error margin

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