Just Eat investor Vitruvian and Hugo Boss backer Permira are managing two of the world’s most popular private equity funds
Two London-based private equity houses currently hold the title of managing some of the world’s most desirable funds, according to data from private equity marketplace Palico.
Investors who purchased stakes through the secondary market in Permira’s Europe IV fund and Vitruvian’s Investment Partnership 1 during the first half of 2017 were willing to pay a price which valued the funds at more than their respective net asset value.
This implies that investors are confident that each fund will continue to perform well, and generate a tidy profit for investors when they come to selling off the businesses in their portfolio.
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The private equity secondary market operates by allowing institutional investors who contributed money to a fund to sell their stake, often at a profit if the fund is performing well, to other investors.
Investors looking to buy a stake in Vitruvian Investment Partnership 1, a fund originally raised in 2008, were willing to cough up 108 per cent of the fund’s net asset value while those looking for a bite of Permira Europe IV, originally raised in 2006, paid 101 per cent.
The Vitruvian fund’s most famous investment was in takeaway meal site Just Eat, which it floated in 2014. Permira Europe IV meanwhile backed fashion house Hugo Boss, more than doubling the value of the company’s stock during its seven-year hold.
The most in-demand fund in the whole of the first half of 2017, according to Palico’s data, was the eighth fund from US firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice which was priced at 115 per cent of net asset value.
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Palico’s data sheds light on the 26 big-name private equity funds for which it was able to gather data in the infamously opaque secondary market. The average price being paid for the 26 funds was 95 per cent of net asset value in the first half of this year.
Including the two funds managed by London-based Permira and Vitruvian, 12 were being valued at above their net asset value. Most of these were US-based, although a Chinese firm also featured.
Fund
Price (as a percentage of net asset value)
Clayton Dubilier & Rice VIII
115 per cent
Waterland Private Equity Fund V
113 per cent
CVC V
112 per cent
Vista Equity Fund IV
109 per cent
Vitruvian Investment Partnership 1
108 per cent
Advent International VI
107 per cent
CDH China Fund IV
106 per cent
Blackstone Capital Partners VI
103 per cent
KKR 2006 Fund
103 per cent
TPG Partners VI
103 per cent
Warburg Pincus Private Equity VIII
102 per cent
Permira Europe IV
101 per cent
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