Question on hurdle rates

I never worked in PE, went straight to HF out of undergrad. Have some opportunities on the private side doing crossover and wanted to ask the mechanics of a hurdle rate for PE funds. Very few HFs have it and it seems to be structured differently for HFs anyway.

Only HF (big recent launch) I know who has it is structured like this:

hurdle rate is 5% net of management fees, get 20% incentive fee above 5% and below 15% and a 30% incentive fee above 15%, on top of management fee etc.

So lets just say they manage $1B and return 10%

$1,000 * 10% = $100 performance for the fund

Management fee lets call 1%, so $1,000 * 1% = 10

Performance Fee is $100 - $10 = $90, $90 - 5% hurdle rate(50) = $40 in performance eligible for the fee, $40 *20% = $8 in performance fees

So all in, the GPs get $18MM in fees and the LPs net 8.2% or $82MM on the $1B

Is this the same mechanics for a PE fund or is it set so that if you hit the hurdle rate, ALL performance is eligible for the 20% fee?

4 Comments
 

It's extremely rare for firms to actually charge 2/20 in PE because LPs get fee breaks for early/anchor commitments during fundraising or large commitments. But let's assume the firm still gets 2/20 for the sake of your question. Most common PE fund hurdle is 8% and that is calculated using your gross return minus management fees (~2%) minus other fund expenses (~50bps). So if they clear the 8% hurdle, then the fund is "in the carry" and will earn 20% performance fees on the (gross return minus mgmt fees minus other fund expenses). Then the carry distributions will vest over time for retention purposes.  

 
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