PEQ : Private Equity Investor flat despite Twitter
Private Equity Investor’s net asset value barely moved over the six month period that ended on 30 September 2014 – falling by 0.6% to 227.1p from 228.4p. In US dollar terms the fall was slightly more pronounced, -3.3%. By contrast however the fund’s share price rose by 3%, reducing the discount to 17.2% from 20.1%.
The big event in the period was the receipt of shares in Twitter Inc from the fund’s investment in Institutional Venture Partners XII, L.P. The 61,380 shares they received were sold at prices between $34.31 and $42.01 and used to help fund an $8.5m distribution to shareholders via a tender offer.
At the end of the period Private Equity Investor held 22 Funds which held 308 private and 42 public companies. One fund was wound up in the period, APV Technology Partners III, L.P; they got a final distribution of $210,000 from this investment.
The statement notes that the pace of IPOs and M&A activity has picked up in 2014 and that almost all its funds are now in realisation mode but cautions that the pace of realisations may slow from here. They say they have explored selling all or part of the portfolio in the secondary market but they do not believe the prices they could achieve at the moment are sufficiently attractive.