Five Treasury Mistakes That Are Almost Universal in PE-Owned Businesses

These situations are usually not the result of a lack of intelligence, commitment, or effort on the part of the people involved. In most cases, they are structural in nature and arise because treasury is still approached as an operational support function, while the reality in a PE-owned environment is that it needs to play a far more strategic role.

Here are the five I encounter most often:

1. No reasury function on Day 1

After the deal closes, attention usually goes first to the most visible integration priorities, and treasury is often addressed too late. That can mean bank accounts are still tied to the seller, Cash visibility is limited to what the CFO can pull from the old ERP. Three months in, the sponsor asks for a group cash report and nobody can produce one.

The fix is straightforward: define who owns treasury before the deal closes, not after.

2. The CFO is doing treasury alone

In many mid-market PE-owned businesses, the CFO is the treasury function. They manage cash, maintain bank relationships, handle FX decisions, and produce covenant reporting, on top of everything else a CFO in a PE-owned business is expected to do.

This is not sustainable, and it creates risk. Treasury decisions made under time pressure, without dedicated expertise, are where expensive mistakes happen.

3. Cash pooling is always “on the roadmap”

Ask the CFO of a PE-owned group with five entities whether they have a cash pooling structure. The answer is usually: “It’s something we want to do.”Ask again six months later. Same answer.

In the meantime, cash remains idle across subsidiaries, intercompany positions are not properly structured, and the group continues to absorb unnecessary bank fees and FX costs. Cash pooling may not be the most visible treasury topic, but it often delivers value quickly.

4. FX exposure is managed reactively

Many PE-owned businesses are exposed to multiple currencies, yet still manage FX without a formal policy. Hedging decisions are then made reactively, often without a consistent framework or clear ownership. This creates avoidable volatility in earnings and makes it harder to explain results when questions arise from sponsors or lenders.

A basic FX framework does not need to be complex, but it does need to exist.

5. Treasury isn’t involved in exit preparation

By the time an exit process begins, treasury should already be well organised. Cash flow reporting should be clear, bank relationships properly documented, FX decisions easy to explain, and covenant compliance straightforward to evidence.

In practice, however, treasury often only becomes a real focus in the final months before a sale. That late effort tends to add cost, increase risk, and sometimes expose issues that should have been resolved much earlier.

None of these problems are unusual, and none of them are beyond fixing. With the right expertise in place at the right moment, they can often be resolved faster than expected.

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Treasurer Search places interim treasury professionals in PE-owned businesses across the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg. If any of these situations sound familiar, let’s talk!