Industries / Private equity and holding groups

Private equity and holding groups. Cost: head office and shared costs, company by company.

Grip reads group accounts, intercompany contracts and shared costs, company by company, and names who carries whom, in AED.

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AED 371 millionHead office costs one Gulf group carried in 2025, 6.8% of what its companies earned before them.

Proven at Majid Al Futtaim

Source: Majid Al Futtaim Holding LLC, Annual Report and Accounts 2025, Analysis of Operating Companies. Majid Al Futtaim's head office and unallocated costs took AED 371 million of EBITDA in 2025 (AED 393 million in 2024) against total segment EBITDA of AED 5,055 million, about 6.8% of the EBITDA its operating companies earned before head office; its Global Solutions shared-service arm reports AED 47.3 million of technology operating model savings and 2,186 processes standardised.

3 workflows

Where we start.

9 of 73 changes other private equity and holding groups companies made. Open one to see the company.

Price and margin

Sister company deals tested against outside quotes, shared services held to targets.

ReadsPurchase spend by category and entityShared service cost centre, recharge schedulePurchase ledger by supplier with ownership flagSupply contracts, related party note

Combine buying, finance and IT across the group only against a written saving target, and publish what it delivered.

Proven at Majid Al Futtaim

Source: Majid Al Futtaim Holding LLC, Annual Report and Accounts 2025, Analysis of Operating Companies.

Test every contract with a sister company against an outside quote, once a year.

Proven at Americana Restaurants

Source: Americana Restaurants International PLC, UAE prospectus (ADX/Tadawul dual listing), 2022, risk factors and procurement.

Set head office costs against each company's profit, so you see who carries whom.

Proven at Majid Al Futtaim

Source: Majid Al Futtaim Holding LLC, Annual Report and Accounts 2025, Analysis of Operating Companies.

Sales and demand

Unprofitable tails exited, existing investors approached first for each raise.

ReadsCost to serve drivers (ordersDeliveries, returns), gross margin by lineInvestor and commitment register by productDeal-by-deal placement records

Rank each company's customers and product lines by profit after the cost to serve, and exit the bottom tail.

Proven at Illinois Tool Works

Source: Illinois Tool Works Inc., Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025, Item 7 segment results.

List every investor already in a fund or deal, and start the next raise with them before new names.

Proven at The Carlyle Group

Source: The Carlyle Group Inc., Form 10-K for fiscal year ended 31 December 2025.

Measure how much of each company's revenue comes from sister companies, and test whether it would win that work outside.

Proven at Majid Al Futtaim

Source: Majid Al Futtaim Holding LLC, Annual Report and Accounts 2025, Analysis of Operating Companies.

Operations

One improvement method across companies, add-ons timed to their first saving.

ReadsPortfolio company general ledgerOperating partner engagement lettersMonthly management packs by companyKPI definitions, board and review calendars

Charge portfolio companies the real cost of the operating team's work, write down who pays, and show investors the bill.

Proven at KKR

Source: KKR & Co. Inc., Form 10-K for fiscal year ended 31 December 2025.

Run one simple improvement method in every company you own, with the same few numbers and monthly review.

Proven at Illinois Tool Works

Source: Illinois Tool Works Inc., Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025, Item 1 and Item 7 results of operations.

Time every add-on acquisition from signing to its first shared saving, and stop buying where that never comes.

Proven at Investor AB

Source: Investor AB (Nasdaq Stockholm), Investor AB Annual Report 2025.

The money at stake.

Public figures, each with its company and year. An estimate is marked.

USD 553 million

A Canadian software acquirer's purchase money still held back from sellers of businesses it bought, in 2026.

Proven at Constellation Software

Source: Constellation Software Inc., Management's Discussion and Analysis, Q2 2026: contractual obligations and subsequent events. Constellation lists $553m of acquisition holdbacks among its contractual obligations ($310m due within a year), more than its $348m of debentures, and after the quarter committed $669m of cash plus $149m of estimated deferred payments to further purchases.

At one of our clients.

Client name withheld.

A family conglomerate in the Gulf

AED 12M

saved by buying once for every group company

The problem: Each group company bought on its own: the same suppliers, different prices, no one seeing the total.
What we did: We read every company's purchase orders and invoices, put the group's spend in one place, and moved the shared categories to one buyer and one contract per supplier.

Grip at work

What your Grip looks like.

A sample company, in AED. Yours is built from your own files.

Three numbers for the whole company, with the chart under each. Sample figures.

What we stand on

01Money first

Every project shows the revenue, cost or cash it is worth, in your currency, from your own files, before you agree to it.

02Every project has proof

Every project runs on a client's Grip, was designed on our own Grip, or comes from a play a named company published, with the document we read it in.

03Your systems as they are

We read the systems you already use. Nothing to move, replace or clean up first.

04Value and money found in 2 weeks

A two-week pilot on one department, your first project live and its money delivered by Day 30, then one fixed monthly fee.

Questions

What private equity and holding groups companies ask first.

Three answers, each with one public figure, its company and its document.

Question 1How can AI reduce head office costs across the portfolio in private equity and holding groups?

AI reads group accounts, intercompany contracts and shared costs, company by company, and names who carries whom, in AED. For scale: AED 371 million, head office costs one Gulf group carried in 2025, 6.8% of what its companies earned before them (Majid Al Futtaim).

AED 371 millionHead office costs one Gulf group carried in 2025, 6.8% of what its companies earned before them.

Proven at Majid Al Futtaim

Question 2What does an AI transformation programme in private equity and holding groups start with?

It starts with the revenue, cost and cash you are losing today, read from the systems you already use. One workflow goes first, usually price and margin, read from purchase spend by category and entity and shared service cost centre, recharge schedule. For scale: USD 553 million, A Canadian software acquirer's purchase money still held back from sellers of businesses it bought, in 2026 (Constellation Software).

USD 553 millionA Canadian software acquirer's purchase money still held back from sellers of businesses it bought, in 2026.

Proven at Constellation Software

Question 3How fast do private equity and holding groups companies see results from AI?

A two-week pilot on one department finds the value and money in your own data before you commit. Your first project goes live, and its money is delivered, by Day 30.

The Perspace symbol resting on the water at blue hour

Start with one workflow.

Tell us what you want to fix. In a two-week pilot we find the value and money before you commit.

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