Prequin.com‘s October report compares the performance of private equity with major public equity indices and analyzes the returns received from various PE fund types over different time horizons as of Q1, 2013. The report also compares the results from private equity fund type indices with that of the S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX).
Horizon IRRs
The chart above shows buyout firms were the best performing fund type across all horizons.
On the other hand, venture capital firms were at the bottom of the table across all time frames.
All fund types showed the poorest returns in the five-year horizon – returns were in the range 3.6% to 7.2%.
How PE fared compared to Public Equity Indices
Private equity was the best performer across all horizons save the one-year period.
During the one-year period, S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) topped with 14.0%, while PE, MSCI Europe and MSCI EM earned 11.3%, 10.6% and 2.0% respectively.
MSCI Europe was the only index to show a negative return, and that was in the 5-year horizon.
PE Indices compared with each other and the S&P500
The chart shows that all PE strategies outperformed the S&P500 since 31 December 2000 (the index was rebased to 100 on that date).
All the indices showed a dip in performance during the crisis period of 2008 – 2009.
Since that time, the Distressed PE Index has been the best performer by a wide margin.
As of March 31st the index wise readings were:
All PE Index: 234.7
Distressed PE: 396.1
Buyout: 305.2
Real Estate: 231.7
FofF: 162.6
Venture Cap: 69.0
S&P500: 118.9
Major PE buyouts and exits during Q3 2013
The largest private equity-backed buyout deal this quarter was the recently-announced $6 billion secondary buyout of Neiman Marcus Inc. by Ares Management and CPP Investment Board from TPG and Warburg Pincus. Other notable deals were as follows:
PE fundraising in Q3
Here is a list of the 10 largest PE Funds that closed fundraising in Q3: