Private equity dealmakers often claim to know their home markets best because they have their ear to the ground and spend years getting to know management teams.

But executives at Omers Private Equity, the buyout arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, are proving that they can play the long game too. The pension fund's buyout team had been talking to the management of UK-based consultancy Environmental Resources Management five years before striking a $1.7 billion deal to acquire the business from Charterhouse Capital Partners this month.