Standard Life Private Equity benefits from narrowing discount – over the year to the end of September 2017, Standard Life Private Equity Trust’s net asset value produced a total return of 14.9% and its share price delivered a total return of 31.9%. The MSCI Europe Index returned 19.1% over the same period. As at the end of September this discount had narrowed to 12.3% from 22.8% twelve months earlier. The dividend is maintained at 12p.
The chairman says that performance was boosted by strong trading in the underlying investee companies, as well as a positive flow of realisations as businesses are sold by the managers of the funds that make up the portfolio. In the year to 30 September 2017, these realisations totalled GBP130.7 million compared to GBP126.9 million in the previous year. Against this, GBP114.2 million was drawn down to fund investee companies and secondary investments. This compares to GBP85.3 million for the prior year and left it with liquid resources of £93.6m.
The manager made four new fund commitments during the period, comprising EUR34.0 million to IK VIII, GBP22.0 million to HgCapital 8, EUR35.0 million to CVC Capital Partners VII and EUR30.0 million to Nordic Capital Fund IX. Furthermore, the Manager undertook three secondary fund purchases, acquiring original commitments of EUR20.0 million to Nordic Capital VII, as well as $3.1 million to TowerBrook Investors III and $1.6 million to TowerBrook Investors IV. As a result of these investment activities, at 30 September 2017 the company had total outstanding commitments of GBP325.6 million.
SLPE : Standard Life Private Equity benefits from narrowing discount