News

Ernst & Young have released a new study on private equity exits in 2007. With that in mind the report sings praise for the performance of the asset class, however on closer reading they seem to be singing to the wrong tune.



The results are biased towards the largest and most successful exits. Considering this bias, there are a few interesting outcomes that has sparked the attention of trade unions.



- Relative to public equity benchmarks, private equity underperformed in "Northern

Europe" and recorded a rather modest plus 2% in the UK. It is suggested that if you remove the bias measuring just the best performing results, the UK also underperformed.



-PE companies outperformed listed companies on revenue per employee by a very modest 1%.



A copy of the report can be found at:

http://www.ey.com/global/content.nsf/International/Media_-_Press_Release_-_2007_a_record_year_for_private_equity_exits



UNI Global Union has advised affiliates that private equity is an asset class that needs to be considered very carefully by investors. UNI Global Union recommends applying the UN Principles of Responsible Investment when considering these investments. UNI has just released a report on ‘Pension fund investment in private equity’ which makes specific recommendations to pension fund trustees considering such investments. UNI Global Union has called on trustees to judge a private equity investment in light of the company’s compliance with UNI’s principles on Private Equity. A recent Danish report, suggests that caution is called for as it would appear that Danish pension funds lost money in private equity investments relative to stock market investments.



For a copy of the UNI pension report please contact:

www.uniglobalunion/privateequity.org



private.equity@uniglobalunion.org