BOTTOM LINE UPFRONT
A new survey reveals concerns that finance leaders are weak on the basics and lack urgency on exit readiness, Jennifer Banzaca reports.
Three-quarters of PE sponsors say their portfolio company CFOs are underperforming, raising concerns about whether finance leaders are prepared to meet today’s market challenges.
According to the 2025 State of the PE Sponsor & CFO Relationship survey by consultancy Accordion, 74 percent of GPs believe portco CFOs are underperforming as stewards of the finance function, while 72 percent said they are failing to deliver on value creation.
With multiples no longer expanding and new headwinds emerging from tariff uncertainty and recession fears, sponsors are demanding sharper execution and stronger performance from their CFOs.
GPs highlighted several areas where CFOs are missing the mark, including ineffective close processes, failure to leverage financial data for actionable insights and weak integration of acquisitions.
Portco CFOs, for their part, admitted to shortcoming in using dynamic forecasting to navigate volatility, integrating operational and financial data to drive growth, and unlocking value through working capital improvements, cash optimisation, and liquidity enhancement.
Nearly three-quarters of sponsors and CFOs agree that PE-backed CFOs are not meeting sponsor expectations (%)
GPs said PE-backed CFOs must master the basics before they can tackle advanced initiatives such as predictive analytics or tech-enabled finance. That means uncovering hidden EBITDA, optimising costs and streamlining inefficient financial planning and analysis workflows.
Given these performance gaps, it is no surprise that 77 percent of portco CFOs remain concerned about their job security. Turnover has always been high—industry data shows CFO turnover rates in PE-backed companies hover around 75-80 percent—and average CFO tenure in the US is also declining.
All told, then, given constrained multiples and mounting macroeconomic risks, the pressure on PE-backed CFOs has never been greater.