Private Equity Performance: A Survey
Charles A. Dice Center Working Paper No. 2015-10
34 Pages Posted: 8 Jul 2015 Last revised: 15 Aug 2015
There are 2 versions of this paper
Private Equity Performance: A Survey
Private Equity Performance: A Survey
Date Written: October 15, 2014
Abstract
We survey the literature on private equity performance, focusing on venture capital and buyout funds rather than portfolio companies. We describe recent findings on performance measures, average fund returns, risk adjustments, cyclicality and liquidity, persistence, interim returns and self-reported net asset values, the performance of different types of investors in funds, and the links between management contracts and fund returns. Buyout funds have outperformed the S&P 500 net of fees on average by about 20% over the life of the fund. Venture capital funds raised in the 1990s outperformed the S&P 500 while those raised in the 2000s underperformed. The results are consistent across a number of datasets and papers. Before the 2000s, buyout and venture capital fund performance showed strong evidence of persistence. Since 2000, buyout fund persistence has declined, while venture capital fund persistence has remained equally strong.
Keywords: private equity, performance
JEL Classification: G11, G12, G23, G24
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation