In this latest paper, Watson Wyatt, suggests some changes to redress the imbalance in private equity fees including changing the basis on which a manager sets its management fees; and that GPs should consider phasing in management fees over the investment period to reduce the significant fee drag from paying on commitments early in the life of a fund.
Nest, the largest workplace pension in the UK, says that private credit managers who prioritise institutional clients will be more favourably viewed. The £61 billion ($82 billion) fund has awarded a £450 million ($605 million) US direct lending mandate to Crescent Capital this month, citing the manager's institutional-client-first approach as a key attraction.
A stubbornly high exposure, lacklustre M&A deals and exit activity as well as a slowdown in fundraising and deployment and market volatility creating benchmarking havoc have all conspired to cause consternation in the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund's private equity allocation.
Fixed income, once a stabilising force for asset-rich Japanese corporate pension funds, now struggles to counter stock and currency volatility. Japanese investors are reducing fixed income, and heavily diversifying their portfolio as high currency hedging costs prompt caution, seeking shelter in short-term strategies amid uncertainties surrounding global central bank policies.
NBIM has petitioned politicians to let it invest in private equity - again. Arguing for a 3-5 per cent allocation with large managers in developed markets, NBIM recognises it will be unable to cap fees like in its other allocations and will curb costs by developing a co-investment program.
Private equity has the potential to play a strong role in decarbonising portfolios, but many funds are lagging both in transparency and in action towards net zero, investors from Harvard and Oxford endowments and the French fund Caisse de Depots said.
Investors can de-risk and increase the long-term returns of unlisted infrastructure assets by enacting forward-looking ESG transitions, investors say, but they need to ensure sufficient control at the board level.
France's ERAFP has just boosted its allocation to private credit after a lengthy manager selection process, renewing and building out existing mandates in a €8 billion allocation begun in 2009.
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