This question regards the morning session of the 2012 CFA 2 Mock exam. In this vignette they describe LUW, Inc. that was bought by the PE firm for $160M and then sold to someone else for $285M. It is clear that the PE firm added value. While I can certainly see that a liquidation would not make sense I can also see that an IPO would be the least likely exit strategy since the PE firm wasn’t able to execute it in the first place. IPO is always the first option sought by the PE firm so if they could not exit that way, wouldn’t it mean that IPO would never be feasible? I just think the question is a bit vague. Any thoughts?
Maybe an IPO wasn’t feasible right then, but could be in the next couple years and selling the company met all the PE firms return requirements right then. I think A makes alot of sense, because its almost never going to be correct to liquidate a profitable company.