Key takeaways:

AURELIUS Mid-market specialises in corporate carve-outs, with an approach differentiated by a laser-sharp focus on operational excellence and simplifying complexity.

AURELIUS has built AURELIUS WaterRise, an in-house team of more than 200 experienced specialists driving operational excellence and a key differentiator for value creation in its portfolio companies.

AUROM is the operating model WaterRise uses to help transform operations. It is effectively a library of lessons, manuals, case studies and checklists from over 20 years of transforming complex businesses.

From instinct to institution: how AURELIUS built its operating model
What happens when an investment firm decides operational expertise is too important to outsource? Over two decades, AURELIUS has grown its in-house capability to more than 200 specialists drawing on institutional experience to create repeatable operational excellence.

AURELIUS‘ operating model didn’t start out as a model at all. When AURELIUS was founded in 2005, its co-founders brought their McKinsey-inspired mindsets: diagnose problems fast, focus on the few issues that really matter, and push hard on implementation.

But investing directly into complex businesses is a different game from consulting – there’s little room for lengthy analysis, and no one else to hand the recommendations to. It means they had to make that change happen themselves.

It became part of the culture without anyone writing it down, and transformation ran on experience and instinct more than structure in the early years. That suited AURELIUS’ market, where speed and operational capability matter as much as valuation. This is because complex situations typically involve sellers motivated by more than price, such as disposing of non-core divisions, shifting strategy, changing consumer behaviour, or a business under stress.

Why does AURELIUS have an in-house operations team?
After a decade of rolling up their sleeves and getting personally involved in each deal came the first inflection point: AURELIUS was moving from a founder-led approach toward something more institutional – though still informal, with expertise in the heads of strong individuals rather than a shared framework.

As the AURELIUS portfolio expanded, the founders couldn’t stay personally involved in every operational detail, so responsibility passed to senior operations professionals, and specialist capabilities started forming around IT, procurement, finance and commercial effectiveness.

The goal was changing too. Operational improvement stayed central, but growth initiatives frequently followed. Deals like Secop and Getronics are early examples of this two-pronged approach: fix the operation first, then invest in organic and inorganic growth and repositioning. That raised the bar and the challenge became making the proven approach repeatable.

The second inflection point: institutional capital
The next big step came in 2021, with the close of AURELIUS European Opportunities IV – its first fund to include institutional LP capital. It is described internally as the moment that changed everything.

Ticket sizes grew, and so did the stakes on each deal. AURELIUS was now working with larger businesses, more sophisticated sellers, and tougher management teams, often across several complex transformations at once. The investment lens shifted too: earlier deals were often focused mainly on cost cutting and multiple expansion, but institutional capital shifted that to IRR and DPI.

The operating model had to evolve to be more systematic, measurable and repeatable. A partner meeting at Lake Garda in 2021 proved pivotal – practice heads were set up across IT, finance, procurement, commercial and operations, each with a team behind them. A people & organisation practice was added more recently. Initially called the Ops Enhancement Program, the goal was to build an operating capability that could be delegated, knowledge that could be transferred, and methods that could scale across a bigger portfolio, while retaining the flexibility and judgement that made the approach work in the first place.

What is AUROM?
The AURELIUS Operating Model (AUROM) was born, a common framework based on the founder-led intervention, built around four areas: value creation strategy; core transformation modules defining the value drivers that matter most; an agile project management framework; and an exit readiness programme.

AUROM is a flexible structure for identifying priorities, deploying the right expertise, and staying focused on execution. Key value drivers help teams prioritise; development stages map the journey from ramp-up through optimisation, growth and exit; core transformation units capture accumulated knowledge; a Transformation Office brings project-management discipline; and the AURELIUS Academy supports knowledge transfer. Underpinning it are six operating principles: end-to-end value creation, clear priorities, measurable outcomes, agile teams, cross-functional working and a learn-and-grow culture.

What is WaterRise?
WaterRise is the in-house Operations Advisory Team that puts AUROM into practice – former C-suite leaders and functional specialists, mostly with a consultancy background, employed by and fully dedicated to AURELIUS. This permanent in-house capability is a real differentiator and traces its roots to 2005 when its two founders began working on creating change.

Rather than leaning on external advisers, AURELIUS keeps its operational expertise in-house, so every transformation adds to a growing body of proprietary, recorded and categorised knowledge about what works, what tends to go wrong, and how specific problems have been solved before. While no project is the same, there are often similarities, and WaterRise keeps written records – lessons learned, manuals, case studies, checklists – on everything.

WaterRise supports the whole project, across the investment cycle. It helps the investment team during due diligence, analysing operational complexity and turning findings into a post-acquisition plan. It subsequently assists management with the IT separation, often an early priority in carve-outs since systems and infrastructure need to be detached from a former parent quickly. WaterRise then draws on specialist teams across IT, procurement, commercial, finance, operations and people & organisation to support management wherever necessary.

The operating plan usually runs in two phases. The initial focus right after acquisition is creating standalone capability, strengthening management where needed, protecting cash, and introducing a faster, more entrepreneurial rhythm. As performance stabilises, attention shifts to optimisation and growth, with WaterRise gradually withdrawing as support of organic initiatives, add-on acquisitions, integration and synergy delivery continues.

From experience to institutional advantage
AUROM and WaterRise were born across two decades of evolution with distinct stages: founder-led mindsets and a hands-on spirit at first; delegated to senior operators and specialists from around 2015; and systematic and repeatable following institutional capital in 2021. Success across the 300+ businesses it backed has seen AURELIUS grow to more than 400 professionals operating from 10 offices in Europe, North America and Asia. It has also seen the launch of AURELIUS Opportunities V, a second LP fund which closed on €830 million in 2025 and is able to write larger cheques and across a wider geographic remit than its predecessor vehicle.

The next step for AUROM is already underway – technology. AI lets WaterRise teams interrogate its playbooks more dynamically and quickly, pulling specific lessons from AURELIUS‘ accumulated experience on demand.

“AUROM enhanced our own operations by defining processes that could be repeated; it didn’t replace judgement. We are confident AI will similarly make our in-house expertise even more valuable,” says Matthias Täubl, Partner of AURELIUS WaterRise. “It will make our two decades of complex investment experience more immediately accessible, an advantage all our portfolio companies are already beginning to see.”

About AURELIUS

AURELIUS is a global private equity investor, distinguished and widely recognised for its operational approach. It focuses on private markets, in particular Private Equity and Private Debt. Its key investment platforms include AURELIUS Opportunities V, AURELIUS European Opportunities IV, AUR Portfolio III and AURELIUS Growth. AURELIUS has been growing significantly in recent years, especially expanding its global footprint, and today employs more than 400 professionals in ten offices spanning Europe, North America and Asia.

AURELIUS is a renowned specialist for complex investments with operational improvement potential such as carve-outs, platform build-ups or succession solutions as well as bespoke financing solutions. To date, AURELIUS has completed more than 300 transactions, and has built a strong track record of delivering attractive returns to its investors. Its approach is characterised by its uncompromising focus on operational excellence and an unrivalled ability to efficiently execute highly complex transactions.

More info: www.aurelius-group.com

AURELIUS media contact:

Harald Kinzler

Head of Communications

harald.kinzler@aurelius-group.com

+44 7785 722 191