The inaugural 2006 edition of the Eurekahedge Fund of Private Equity Funds Directory contains information on 654 funds managing US$167 billion in assets, as we endeavour to serve as the market-monitor for another growing segment of the alternative investments landscape. Figure 1, charting the growth (by number of funds) of the funds of private equity funds (FoPEFs) in our databases over the last decade, corroborates this.
A regional breakdown of these funds (both as investment regions and as centres of fund management) shows North America as a key centre for FoPEFs, with 60% of the industry’s assets managed out of the region and close to 50% of industry assets invested there. Europe is the second largest centre. This and a more detailed breakdown of assets in FoPEFs are given in Figures 2 and 3 below.
Figure 2: Assets by Geographic Mandate
Figure 3: Assets by Manager Location
*Others include Norway, Luxembourg, Italy, UAE, Hong Kong, Spain, Japan, South Africa, Greece, Channel Islands, Cayman Islands, Israel, Austria, Bahrain, Finland, New Zealand and Iceland.
Source: Eurekahedge
Sectors
While a sector-wise breakdown of funds in the Eurekahedge FoPEF directory shows that the majority (close to 90%) of funds tends to invest in multiple sectors, looking at new fund launches by industry focus tells a slightly different story. Figure 4 below looks at the current breakdown of remaining 10% of the funds by the specific sectors they target, while Figure 5 looks at the year-on-year growth in the number of funds by key growth sectors, namely: Capital Goods, Healthcare, Real Estate and Technology.
As can be seen from Figure 5 above, an increasing number of recently-launched FoPEFs are parking their assets in private equity funds with a sector-specific mandate, and especially, funds investing in capital goods, healthcare, technology and real estate. This is again indicative of the dominant ‘emerging markets’ theme that has characterised the growth of the underlying sectors over the past few years.
In Closing
The aim of this directory, and the accompanying Eurekahedge online platform, is to facilitate comprehensive coverage of the private equity fund of funds universe. The afore-outlined trends with regards to industry growth, and more specifically, key sectors and regions of growth, hint at the utility of such a data-aggregating platform for investors, fund managers and service providers alike, in this fast-growing space.
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