Book excerpt: Based on a dataset of over 3,000 leveraged buyout transactions, including performance data, Nicolaus Loos analyses how financial investors create economic value through their investments. He shows that various exogenous factors with respect to timing, industry, public market as well as deal specific factors can statistically be related to a buyout deal's performance. He also provides evidence of a "GP effect" in leveraged buyouts, i.e. that certain characteristics of a Private Equity firm and its investment professionals as well as a firm's buyout strategy approach and certain buyout target characteristics are important success factors.