The most consistently excellent fund-of-funds manager in private equity is the product of a pension fund.
ATP Private Equity Partners, the private equity arm of Danish pension fund ATP, was ranked by Preqin as the most reliably top-performing fund-of-funds manager. The alternatives data provider ranked funds-of-funds managers by how often their funds delivered top-quartile performance.
ATP’s private equity unit, founded in 2001, had four funds of funds included in the Preqin study. All four ranked in the top quartile for performance.
It was a perfect score matched only by Munich-based SwanCap Partners, which had three out of three funds of funds score in the top quartile of returns.
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To compile the ranking, Preqin examined managers that have raised at least three funds of private equity funds, excluding those that have not launched a new fund since 2013. Other managers in the top ten included Singapore-based Axiom Asia Private Capital and San Francisco’s Bay Hills Capital.
Although the top three managers were based outside the U.S., the country’s funds of funds were well-represented, accounting for three-quarters of Preqin’s top-20 list. These included Chicago’s Twin Bridge Capital Partners and Charleston-based Bowside Capital.
In addition to ranking the most consistently top-performing managers, Preqin also highlighted five “funds of funds to watch” – funds launched between 2016 and 2019 that are reporting high net- performance multiples after calling up at least 20 percent of their committed capital.
Included among these up-and-coming funds of funds were StepStone Group’s StepStone Tactical Growth Fund II, a $215 million fund launched in 2017, and Aberdeen Standard Investments’ Aberdeen U.S. Private Equity VII, a $339 million fund from 2018. Commonfund, HarbourVest Partners, and WP Global Partners also had funds of funds highlighted as ones to watch.
