Harbourvest Global Private Equity has published its results for the year that ended 31 January 2014. Over the year the net asset value grew by 15% to hit $14.38 ($1,167m). They say venture investments and investments in the US did best during the year. By contrast the MSCI World Index rose by 10.4% over this period. The share price improved by 24% as the discount narrowed to 25.2%.
Harbourvest Global Private Equity invests through a range of funds managed by Harbourvest. Over the year it made commitments to invest $274 million in a number of new funds (including a US fund-of-funds, a global secondary fund, and a global co-investment fund). Total commitments at the year end were $567 million. The actual amount of money invested during the year was $163m and Harbourvest Global Private Equity got back $256m from realisations. The net cash inflow helped push the company’s leverage down to 8%.
The largest realisations during the period were of bpost (Belgian postal operator), Revlon Consumer Products (cosmetics) and Alliantgroup (Tax Advisory Services)
The Board is still hopeful that the balance of the share register will change so that the proportion controlled by US investors falls below 50% – at that point they intend to move the company from trading on the specialist funds market to a premium listing on the main market of the London Stock Exchange.