Investment trust insider on NB Private Equity – James Carthew: Co-investments give NBPE pick of private equity pie
Last week I caught up with Paul Daggett, one of the managers of NB Private Equity (NBPE), as he visited investors in the UK on a trip from his Dallas base.
I get a sense that after many years of being unfairly overlooked, listed private equity funds are seeing light at the end of the tunnel. There is hope that, as the UK government encourages pension funds to back unlisted companies with its Mansion House Reforms, there might be some change in mindset from those with an irrational dislike to private equity. After all, private equity is much more than just financial engineering and investors who shun these funds are missing out on great returns.
NBPE can boast annualised investment returns of 14.8% per year over the past 10 years, which makes it fourth best in the sector behind Abdrn Private Equity Opportunities (APEO), HarbourVest Global Private Equity (HVPE) and HgCapital Trust (HGT).
That also puts it in the top 10 closed-end funds over the same period and miles ahead of the MSCI World index having grown the underlying net asset value (NAV) by 202% over the 10 years to 30 October, versus 118% for the benchmark.
Its share price returns are even better, reflecting some narrowing of its discount over that period. Yet it still trades on…. read more here