KKR gets the top award for its exit of CHI Overhead Doors, and for its forward-looking employee ownership view. Our winners for best deals of 2022 are in six categories.

Deals of the Year

Building garage doors isn’t the sexiest vocation on earth, unless you work for a company that makes them and then rewards you with more money than you’ve ever seen before. That’s exactly what happened when KKR exited its investment with portfolio company CHI Overhead Doors, and it’s one of the reasons why we’re crowning that transaction as overall Deal of the Year, leading off our annual awards issue, which crowns private equity firms for the best exits made in 2022.

In addition to the overall Deal of the Year, we salute winners in these categories. They are: Large Market, for Greenbriar’s exit of Radwell International, a specialist in industrial components; Mid-Market, for Francisco’s creation from scratch of Trellis Rx; Small Market, for Blackford Capital’s exit of Quality Aluminum Products; International, for JC Flowers’ rejuvenation of Interactive Investor; and Secondaries, for KKR’s work with Internet Brands (yes, KKR gets two trophies this year – the rich get richer).