Large Cap PEs performance

Monkeys,

There has been a fair amount of discussion on here around the appeal to join MFs / Large Cap funds but one perspective that hasn't really been discussed is the one of performance. Looking at publicly available data (don't have access to Preqin which would make things much easier), it appears that many of the large institutions suffered from at times heavy return dilution. Using publicly available sources as a reference (e.g. CalSTRS, other pension funds, PEHub, PEI), wanted to see whether any of you can correct or confirm the below:

  • Advent: have produced killer returns, consistently in the 15+% range even for their 2008 vintage
  • Apax: Relatively poor performance with '07 vintage fund at ~5% IRR. Fund 8 ('12 vintage) seems better with ~15% IRR but only 1.5x MoM - IRR trickery again here? Also took 5 years between each of the last 2 fund to raise...
  • Bain Capital: had mixed performances in their older funds. 2008 Vintage returns ~10% IRR. Fund 11 (2012 vintage) marked at ~25% IRR but only ~1.6x money returned - anyone knows what the story behind this is, besides IRR trickery?
  • BC Partners: seem to do okay although only at ~10% IRR with their '11 fund - anyone knows more about the more recent funds?
  • Blackstone: killer returns with >15% IRR, only global recession fund ('06 vintage) 10% IRR
  • Carlyle: killer performance throughout with IRR consistently above 15% and MoM >2x
  • Cinven: Mixed performance with '06 fund 10% IRR. Fund 5 ('12 vintage) 20% IRR but only 1.6x MoM - IRR trickery again here?
  • CVC: appear to be doing well with Fund 5 (2008 vintage) ~15% IRR. Anyone knows about Fund 6 (2014) performance?
  • EQT: Seem to be doing really well but came down in returns over time - from consistently >2x to ~1.7-2x

Only looked at pre-2015 vintage as everything younger still needs to mature... anyone can add to the above, also with additional names and/or better information?

5 Comments
 

Generally agree. In this instance I was however more leaning towards IRR as not sure how these funds measure MoM based on the capital distributed and whether it is like-for-like. However, if we do take this as a measurement, most funds would be 2x hence further raising the issue that many Large Cap funds produce anything but stellar performances...

 
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