Princess Private Equity’s results for 2015 show the fund delivering a return on net assets of 17.5%. The dividend was €0.54 (a 5.7% yield on NAV at 31 December 2015 / 6.9% yield on the shares). The Board say they plan to continue to pay a dividend of 5% to 8% per annum of the NAV.
The largest contributors to NAV growth in 2015 were Princess’ direct investments including VAT Vakuumventile AG, MultiPlan or Action. VAT was revalued on favourable market conditions and a positive outlook for its high end vacuum valves business. Multiplan provides cost containment solutions to US healthcare insurers. It cut its debt and performed well. Action is a non-food discount retailer in Europe with over 600 stores across six countries. It just opened its first store in Austria and signed an agreement to buy several stores from a French retailer.
During 2015, Princess invested €65.5m in five new direct private equity, five new direct private debt and one new direct infrastructure investment, bringing the allocation to direct investments to 68% of NAV compared to 56% of NAV at the end of 2014. Overall, €78.1m was deployed with the investment level increasing to 93.5% of NAV, up from 85.9% at the start of the year. They say that, throughout 2015, distribution proceeds to Princess remained strong with the portfolio generating proceeds of €130.7m, representing 22.0% of the opening NAV. €40m was committed to Partners Group Direct Equity 2016. Unfunded commitments total €131.8m.
PEY : Princess Private Equity returns 17% in 2015