The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 included substantial relief funds for the most troubled US multiemployer pension plans through its Special Financial Assistance (SFA) program. This paper looks at how multiemployer plans have a unique opportunity to improve their solvency through 2051 and beyond by optimizing how they invest both SFA relief funds and their existing plan assets.
Reflecting on the last ten years of analyses, we have seen the industry continue to evolve, from Private Equity 1.0 to 2.0, marked by increased sophistication in every aspect of finding, analyzing, and operating companies. With this evolution, private equity has also grown in importance and delivered strong absolute and relative returns. Our analyses have highlighted four key themes: private equity outperformed public markets, the tech sector was a clear winner, top-line growth was a driver of superior returns, and small-cap companies continue to demonstrate promise.
Asian markets have had a difficult year, but while the current environment has been challenging for most investments, it has also created an opportunity for more defensive and diversifying strategies to add value. In this edition of Asia Insights, we focus on the case for Asia quality strategies within public equities; increased interest in India and Southeast Asia venture capital markets; private infrastructure and private credit as defensive strategies; and the value in Asia macro and equity long/short.
Most defined benefit plans–including public, multi-employer, and even frozen corporate plans–can benefit from private investment (PI) strategies. Despite this, many plan sponsors still abruptly cut off PI commitments or do not optimize their usage as the plan matures. This paper explores how plan sponsors should utilize PI strategies within their toolkit and customize their composition over time to reflect a plan’s evolving goals.
In 2021, the Cambridge Associates LLC Developed Markets (ex US) Private Equity and Venture Capital (PE/ VC) Index returned 33.4% in USD terms, equaling its strong performance in 2020.
In 2021, the US private equity and venture capital indexes posted their highest calendar year returns since 1999, potentially signaling a market peak and the end of over a decade of steady growth. For the year, the Cambridge Associates LLC US Private Equity Index® returned 41.3% and the Cambridge Associates LLC US Venture Capital Index® gained 54.6%.
Fiscal year 2022 was a challenging one for public market investments. Rising levels of inflation across most developed and emerging markets saw central banks become more aggressive in their monetary tightening plans. This in turn saw correlations between bonds and equities become positive; bonds declined as a direct result of higher inflation and tighter policy, while equities weakened in response to the higher cost of capital. This chart book presents returns and other market metrics for fiscal year 2022.
Yes. We do expect venture capital (VC) returns to be negatively impacted in the coming quarters but doubt that impact will be as pronounced and wholesale as it was during the dot-com era.
As entrepreneurs know well, the process of creating and managing a successful business is complex and requires great skill, insight, and hard work. Successful management of significant wealth requires similar attributes; however, not all the characteristics fundamental to entrepreneurial success translate to effective portfolio management. This paper presents five recommendations for those looking to build an investment framework that can be as successful and personally rewarding as building a business.
Our annual analysis comparing private equity globally with public peers.