HarbourVest Gobal Private Equity says that, for the year ended 31 January 2025, it generated a NAV return (in dollars) of 7.3% and a share price return (in sterling) of 19.2% (as the discount narrowed from 42% to 35%).

The trust announced a range of measures on 30 January 2025 that are aimed at narrowing the discount further.

The company bought back 3,414,837 shares at a total cost of $106m and at an average price of £24.48 in the year. This was equivalent to 2.7% of opening NAV and boosted NAV per share by 1.9%. This was the largest share buyback programme in the peer group by volume and the second largest as a percentage of NAV.

The trust invested $443m and realised $382m of investments over the period. There were also $415m of new fund commitments in the year. The trust has $1.2bn of credit facilities (of which $480m is drawn) and cash as at 31 January 2025 of $123m. This ranslates into a net debt position of $357m at 31 January 2025 (up from $135m on 31 January 2024) due to net investment into the portfolio, share buybacks and operating expenses.

Extracts from the manager’s report

PE exit activity strengthened in the second half of 2024, but this was still not sufficient to ease the liquidity pressures that have been faced by Limited Partners (“LPs”) since 2022. Although estimated PE exit volume of $871 billion during 2024 was comfortably ahead of the $759 billion recorded for the same period in 2023, it remained substantially below 2021’s peak, which saw $1.7 trillion of private equity exits globally, and below the average of $1.0 trillion seen over the prior five years. Whilst IPOs tend to make up a small percentage of exit activity, it is worth noting that IPO markets did not make the meaningful return in 2024 that many had hoped for, with the number of IPOs globally falling 10% to 1,215, significantly below the peak of 2,388 seen in 2021 and the annual average of 1,639 seen over the last five years.

With activity in the traditional exit channels for private markets remaining low by historical standards, the secondaries market has been increasingly accessed by both GPs and LPs as they seek to generate liquidity from portfolios.

The direct portfolio was the best performing strategy in percentage terms, delivering value growth of 10.1% over the 12 months. This compared with growth of 6.7% for secondaries and 5.0% for primaries. Geographically, North America, Europe and Asia categories all saw growth at 7.5%, 6.9% and 3.7% respectively, while the Rest of the World saw a decline (-5.3%). Looking at stages, the Mezzanine and InfRA portfolio was the strongest performer, growing 9.7% in the 12 months ended 31 January 2025. Buyout and Venture & Growth Equity stage assets also grew, recording gains of 6.4% and 6.0% respectively.

As at 31 January 2025, HVPE held investments in 61 HarbourVest funds and 16 secondary co-investments (compared with 63 and 16 respectively at 31 January 2024). Of these, the largest fund contributors to NAV per share movement in absolute terms during the 12 months to 31 January 2025 are described below:

• Fund XI Buyout, a US-focused buyout fund of funds, was the largest contributor to NAV per share, adding $0.42 over the reporting period. With a vintage year of 2018, this fund is in its growth phase. The increase came predominately from unrealised gains.
• Asia Pacific 5, an Asia-pacific focused multi-strategy fund of funds, was the second-largest contributor over the reporting period, adding $0.36 to NAV per share. With a vintage year of 2021, this fund is in its investment phase. The increase came predominately from unrealised gains.
• Fund XII Buyout, a US-focused buyout fund of funds, was the third-largest contributor, adding $0.33 to NAV per share. With a vintage year of 2021, this fund is in its investment phase. The increase came predominantly from unrealised gains.
• Co-Investment VI, a global direct co-investment fund, was the fourth-largest contributor over the reporting period, adding $0.32 to NAV per share. With a vintage year of 2021, this fund is in its investment phase. This increase came predominantly from unrealised gains.
• Co-Investment V, a global direct co-investment fund, was the next largest contributor over the reporting period, adding $0.21 to NAV per share. With a vintage year of 2018, this fund is in its growth phase. This increase came predominantly from realised gains.

All of the remaining HarbourVest funds in the portfolio together contributed to an aggregate $2.73 increase to HVPE’s NAV per share over the year.

HVPE : HarbourVest Private Equity keen to narrow discount further