Invest into PE - options and providers

caldi9

Good evening,

has anyone invested into PE funds as retail investor? Are there any ways to invest into Blackstone and other major PE funds?

I wonder whether it is only possible via wealth management providers.

Thank you

Linton

There are a number of Private Equity Investment Trusts. Look on Trustnet in the IT Private Equity sector. I hold Princess Private Equity (PEY) which generates a good dividend and has performed reasonably well over the years. Another well known one is 3I.

jimjames

I use Pantheon & ICGT. Unfortunately ICGT is no longer available via iWeb

caldi9

Thanks - did not want to invest in secondary funds as there is a number of poorly performing PE shops.

A_T

I'm in Harbourvest

Linton

caldi9 wrote: »

Thanks - did not want to invest in secondary funds as there is a number of poorly performing PE shops.

They aren’t “secondary funds”. 3i etc are major PE investors.

jscol

Can I ask what a private equity fund is?
Also what are the advantages / disadvantages?

Linton

My understanding....



A private equity fund invests directly by a taking a very active stake in a few well chosen, often small and unquoted, companies - think of Dragon's Den. The main advantages are that it can be very profitable and is not strongly correlated with the stock market. Disadvantages include that the individual investments it makes are high risk and very difficult if not impossible to value accurately.

Malthusian

Linton wrote: »

A private equity fund invests directly by a taking a very active stake in a few well chosen, often small and unquoted, companies - think of Dragon's Den.

They also buy very large companies, essentially because they believe they can do a better job of managing them - or at least they used to. But that market shrunk dramatically after the credit crunch, because the deals were usually financed with huge amounts of debt, and the banks are naturally more reluctant to lend now.

I tried to look on Wikipedia for some recent examples as I'm no longer plugged into the sector. Notably, Wikipedia has an article on the history of private equity, and that history pretty much ends completely in 2008.

Private equity still exists, of course, but the end of the "mega-buyout" means it is less in the public consciousness.

caldi9

Linton wrote: »

They aren’t “secondary funds”. 3i etc are major PE investors.

Princess does secondary as well. 3i has a poor annualized return from what I understand. Are there certain SIPP/ISA providers that have a broad range of PE funds or ETFs available?

caldi9

Are there certain SIPP/ISA providers that have a broad range of major PE funds or ETFs available?