Over the past few years, Standard Life European Private Equity Trust (SEP) has been benefitting from a high level of distributions. Now, as equity markets become more volatile, SEP’s managers think that we could be shifting from a realisation phase into an investment phase. They think the underlying managers should be deploying cash at attractive valuations, laying the foundations for continued good performance in the years to come. In the meantime, they believe the mature portfolio should support continued strength in the net asset value.