There are currently 366 private equity real estate funds in market seeking aggregate commitments of $154 billion. Preqin has analysed these funds to see which strategies these vehicles will be utilizing. Globally, opportunistic strategies will be the most commonly utilized, with 36% of the total capital targeted to be focused on opportunistic investments. 23% will be focused on debt investments a… Read More

In the third quarter of 2009, fund valuations for all private equity increased for the second quarter in a row, following quarter-on-quarter declines in 2008. Between Q2 and Q3 2009, private equity funds measured an average increase in NAV of 4.1%. Distressed private equity funds are showing the largest quarter-on-quarter increases in NAV, at 9.6%. These funds posted significant declines in Q4 20… Read More

Fund Manager Profiles is the most extensive, detailed source of information on private equity fund managers in the world. Preqin’s comprehensive product not only contains detailed profiles of over 5,000 private equity firms around the world, but also current and historic private equity dry powder levels across the globe by region and fund type. Using the data, we can see that the volume of e… Read More

The private equity clean technology industry has grown considerably in the past 10 years. An increasing awareness of climate change and global warming combined with new, disruptive technologies and opportunities to make significant returns from this emerging industry have attracted institutional investors to commit increasing amounts of capital to private equity fund managers focusing on the secto… Read More

PSERS, the USD 45.7 billion public pension fund, is looking to continue investing in both debt and distressed situations funds. However, although its allocation to private equity real estate is set to rise and it will commit to these funds again, it will not invest in debt or distressed situations vehicles for the next 12 months. PSERS is predominantly a value added and opportunistic investor and … Read More

Compared to 2009, Q1 2010 fundraising to-date has been relatively positive.  In 2009, 18 unlisted infrastructure funds reached a final close, raising $7.2bn in capital commitments.  This was considerably less than the $34.6bn raised by 39 funds in 2008.  However, since the turn of the year, two infrastructure funds have closed raising an aggregate $5bn.  This includes the $4.1b… Read More

Two public pension funds which actively invest in private equity have appointed new senior investment staff. Janine M. Guillot was named Chief Operating Investment Officer (COIO) of California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the USD 203 billion public pension fund. She begins April 19th and will report to the system’s CIO on various strategies, including CalPERS’ private… Read More

Institutional investors have increasingly been adding hedge funds to their investment portfolios over the past 5 years. Despite the financial crisis, hedge fund blow-ups and shrinking of the asset class over the past 2 years, institutional investors have held fast in their use of these kinds of investments and we estimate that assets from institutional investors and funds of funds now account for … Read More

There are currently 366 private equity real estate funds in market targeting an aggregate $150 billion in equity. 72% of funds in market are targeting less than $500 million of equity, with these funds accounting for 35% of the aggregate capital targeted by all private equity real estate funds on the road. Funds targeting between $500-999 million in equity commitments account for 20% of the vehic… Read More

The overall private equity horizon IRR for the one-year period to September 30th, 2009 stands at -9.2%, comparing favourably to the -24.1% posted as of June 30th, 2009. Private equity returns improved between June and September 2009, but all private equity strategies are still posting negative one-year horizon returns for the period ending in Q3 2009. With a horizon IRR of -17.1%, mezzanine is the… Read More

WSIB is in search of a consultant to provide non-discretionary private equity investment advice, and another firm to provide back office support, transaction management and reporting services. One firm is allowed to provide both services if it is capable of doing so, but this would be under two separate contracts. Firms interested in providing both services should submit separate proposals for eac… Read More

Maine Public Employees Retirement System, the USD 9.3 billion public pension fund, is putting together an IPS that will guide its future investment strategy. The process is likely to take several months and the pension fund is unlikely to commit to any funds during that period. However, it does have an idea of the investments it will target upon resumption of investment activity. While it has only… Read More

Preqin recently conducted a survey examining private equity fund managers’ views on family offices as investors. The sample comprised of venture, buyout, mezzanine, distressed and fund of funds managers. Preqin’s results show that smaller private equity funds have larger proportions of family offices (and high-net-worth individuals) investing in them. The analysis shows that family of… Read More

From a recent infrastructure investor survey it is apparent that investors are increasingly reluctant to agree to a “2 and 20” fee model for infrastructure funds. This has already started to impact fund terms, which show a very wide spread in key aspects like the basic management fee. One-third of funds have a fee close to 2%, but a significant proportion of funds operate with lower fe… Read More

International Finance Corporation (IFC) is amongst investors in MicroVest’s second private equity vehicle, which closed in December having raised capital totalling $60 million. IFC, which has offices around the world and is an active investor in private equity funds targeting emerging markets, is one of a number of US-headquartered organisations to have made a commitment to MicroVest II. The… Read More

Preqin’s research reveals that there are 1,582 private equity vehicles fundraising at present, targeting an aggregate USD 655 billion. 42% of these funds have already had at least one interim close having raised USD 316 billion. In terms of the number of vehicles currently on the road, nearly half (47%) target the North American market, 28% focus mainly on investments in Asia and Rest of Wo… Read More

Since the beginning of the year we have seen several institutional investors altering their approach to hedge fund investments – with many investors looking for new strategies and geographic regions to add to their hedge fund portfolios to capitalise on current opportunities in the market. Fund of funds arguably had the most difficult time after the financial crisis especially following thei… Read More