Critics accuse TPG of inflating returns ahead of IPO

https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b1w…

 The PE industry has used IRR for a while now and from the what the article is saying, the professor is saying that these are just estimates and are unsold marked to market estimates.

I don't think the PE industry will suddenly stop using IRR because of this one time but investors are starting to add more pressure.

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Some of the comments just demonstrate ignorance about the PE industry:

How can a 10-year TPG fund have a “cash in/net cash out to investors” ratio of say 1.6x, and yet indicate a compound IRR of 21 percent? A 21 percent IRR over a six-year average life portfolio would show a ratio of 3.14x (1.21 to the sixth power), not 1.6x.

21% IRR / 1.6x MOIC implies a cash WAL of about 2.5 years, which is totally normal in a fund without recycling and divi recaps / fund-level leverage. Sure, some deals will be around longer but those don't generally produce high IRRs.

 
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That’s why funds show returns based on a few dimensions:

net and gross

irr and moic

realized and unrealized

Each controls for an important factor: fees, time, estimates vs reality, respectively.

They are just numbers and everyone knows what’s in them. If you misinterpret a clearly defined metric, it’s because you don’t understand the nomenclature in which case you shouldn’t be in a position to assess these investment options.

The last dimension people look at is returns on a vintage level. So if you’re looking at any of the above figures in a vacuum, again, you don’t understand the asset class. You assess all these performance stats on a relative vintage level. So long as your comparing gross returns of a given fund with gross returns of similar vintage funds, you can get a sense of how they’ve performed.

So while a professor at Johns Hopkins has an opinion on the matter… who gives a fuck what he thinks? Most likely he actually knows all of the above I mentioned, and is just pumping out click bait content to get his name out there.

 

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