Co-CEOs Collin Roche (left) and Dean Mihas (right) are leading the second generation in charge of 45-year-old private equity firm GTCR.

While private equity managers hoping for a dealmaking bonanza under Donald Trump’s administration have been sorely disappointed, GTCR has bucked the trend with a series of gaudy exits.

The Chicago-based firm’s $45 billion in assets under management pale in comparison to Wall Street’s biggest players like Blackstone, Apollo and KKR, but none of its peers made off with a deal like GTCR’s and FIS’ sale of Worldpay to Global Payments for $24.25 billion, announced in April and expected to close in the first half of 2026. GTCR bought a 55% stake in the Cincinnati-based payment processing firm from FIS at an $18.5 billion valuation in July 2023, and flipped it in less than two years for double the equity it invested, according to reports. This, during a period when the average holding period for the private equity industry crept up to more than six years in 2023 and 2024, a signal that many firms are struggling to find buyers for their businesses.

The Worldpay sale came shortly after GTCR sold insurance broker AssuredPartners to Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. for $13.45 billion last December. GTCR created the business in partnership with its founding management team in 2011 and sold a majority stake to Apax Partners in 2015 before reacquiring it in 2019 at a reported $5.1 billion valuation. And since the Worldpay deal, GTCR announced two more smaller sales........

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